Everything We Learned from Prince Harry’s “60 Minutes” Interview with Anderson Cooper

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Before the release of his revelatory memoir Spare, Prince Harry sat down with Anderson Cooper for an illuminating interview on CBS News’ 60 Minutes. In the segment, the Duke of Sussex further opened up about his fraught relationship with his brother, Prince William, his father, King Charles, and other members of the British Royal Family, the aftermath of the death of his mother, Princess Diana, and his marriage to Meghan Markle.

“None of anything I've written, anything that I've included is ever intended to hurt my family,” Prince Harry said of Spare. “But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.”

Below, the main takeaways from Prince Harry’s candid 60 Minutes interview.

Prince Harry didn’t believe his mother died “for a long time”

At the start of the interview, Prince Harry opened up about the August 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana. He explains the “guilt” he felt in the days following the fatal car crash, as he, Prince William, and his father greeted mourners outside Buckingham Palace in London.

“I do remember one of the strangest parts to it was taking flowers from people and then placing those flowers with the rest of them,” he said. “As if I was some sort of middle person for their grief.”

Harry revealed that for “many, many years,” he did not believe his mother had died. “I refused to accept she was gone,” he said. He held onto hope that she disappeared to get out of the spotlight, but that she would eventually return to him and William. At 20 years old, Harry asked to see the police report from his mother’s car crash to see “proof that she was in the car.” Three years later, he visited Paris and asked to travel the same route and tunnel that led to the death of Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul.

Camilla, Queen Consort was “dangerous,” Harry claims

After their mother’s death, Harry revealed that he and William asked their father not to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles, the woman he had an affair with off and on for decades. “She was the villain. She was the third person in their marriage. She needed to rehabilitate her image,” Harry tells Anderson Cooper.

Harry writes in his memoir that he wanted his father, and even Camilla, to be happy, but “the need for her to rehabilitate her image” made her “dangerous.”

“That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press,” he said on 60 Minutes. “And there was open willingness on both sides to trade information.”

The Royal Family was “uneasy” after Harry and Meghan started dating

Harry explains in Spare that while his father initially liked Meghan, William dismissively referred to her as “an American actress.” Other members of the family mistrusted her as well, he discloses.

“The fact that she was American, an actress, divorced, Black, biracial with a Black mother. Those were just four of the typical stereotypes that is — becomes a feeding frenzy for the British press,” he said.

The vitriol of the British press prompted Prince Harry to release a statement condemning the tabloids in November 2016, for the “wave of abuse and harassment.” He notes that before his relationship with Meghan, he didn’t know how bigoted the British press was and admits he may have been bigoted himself.

“You think you were bigoted before the relationship with Meghan,” Cooper asked, to which Harry replied, “I don't know. Put it this way, I didn't see what I now see.”

William “snapped” during an altercation in 2019, and pushed Harry to the floor

The Duke of Sussex explained that the argument was “a build-up of frustration” on William’s part. “It was at a time where he was being told certain things by people within his office,” he said. “And at the same time, he was consuming a lot of the tabloid press, a lot of the stories.”

As Harry defended his wife, the two brothers shouted back and forth. The fight turned physical after William “pushed” Harry to the floor, where he landed on a dog bowl and cut his back. “It was a pretty nasty experience,” Harry recounted. William apologized and asked Harry not to tell anyone about the altercation, but Meghan soon noticed the gash.

Harry was not invited on a plane to see his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, before her death

In September 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Harry was in the United Kingdom for a charity event at the time but revealed he was not asked on the plane to see his grandmother in her final hours.

“I asked my brother — I said, ‘What are your plans? How are you and Kate getting up there?’ And then, a couple of hours later, you know, all of the family members that live within the Windsor and Ascot area were jumping on a plane together, a plane with 12, 14, maybe 16 seats,” he said. “I was not invited.”

In the final moments of the interview, Prince Harry said he does not currently speak to his brother or his father. When asked if he’d ever return to the Royal Family as a full-time member, he succinctly affirmed, “No. I can't see that happening.”

Spare debuts on Tuesday, January 10. You can order the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, or at your local independent bookseller.

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