Camilla’s need to alter her ‘image’ was ‘dangerous’
Prince Harry made his disdain for his stepmother known in his Interview “60 Minutes” Sunday.
The Duke of Sussex described Queen Camilla as the “villain” in their parents’ relationship, reiterating mother Princess Diana’s explanation that Camilla was “the third person in their marriage”.
“She needed to rehabilitate her image,” Harry, 38, said of Camilla, 75, who married her father, King Charles III, in 2005, nine years after the monarch and Diana divorced.
But while Camilla and Charles, 74, waited nearly a decade after their split to tie the knot, the couple were in a long-term relationship while both were married to other people.
Princess Diana described her marriage to Charles as a “a little full” because of the appointment.
Harry wrote on his memories, “Spare”, that he wanted Camilla “to be happy”, because he could make her “less dangerous”.
The royal renegade explained to Anderson Cooper that Camilla’s desire to change people’s perception of her was threatening “because of the connections she was forging within the British press.”
He continued: “And there was an open willingness on both sides to exchange information. And with a family built on the hierarchy, and with her, on her way to being queen consort, there would be people or bodies on the street because of it.”
Inside Harry’s new memories
Camilla’s image was suspected by the British public for many years due to her affair with King Charles, which included revealing a very embarrassing conversation involving tampons. She was labeled a homewrecker and often compared unfavorably to Princess Diana, who died in August 1997.
The king even hired Marc Bolland, a palace aide whose sole job was to bolster Camilla’s public perception.
Harry wrote in his book, which will hit shelves on Tuesday, December 10, that both he and his brother, Prince William urged his father not to marry the now queen consort.
“We didn’t think it was necessary,” Harry said of his father’s second marriage. “We thought that he was going to cause more harm than good and that if he was now with his person, that, surely that is enough. Why go that far when you don’t necessarily have to?
The royal siblings eventually agreed to the wedding, as they “wanted him to be happy and saw how happy he was with her.”
In February, Camilla said she was “honoured” that Queen Elizabeth II wanted her to have the title of queen consort.