Prince Harry Says He Was 'Trapped' as a Royal — and Addresses Rift with Prince Charles and Prince William
Prince Harry says he was "trapped" in royal life — and that the same is true of his brother, Prince William, and father, Prince Charles.
"I didn't see a way out," Harry told Oprah Winfrey of royal life in a revealing interview airing Sunday on CBS. "I was trapped but I didn't know I was trapped. Trapped within the system like the rest of the family. My father and my brother are trapped. They don't get to leave and I have huge compassion for that."
When told by Oprah that he didn't look unhappy in the public eye, Harry replied that he wasn't necessarily "enjoying [royal] life because there were photographs of me smiling while I was shaking hands and meeting people."
Harry also opened up in depth for the first time about his strained relationships with both William and Charles.
DOMINIC LIPINSKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Kate Middleton, Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
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"There is a lot to work through there," he said of his relationship with his father, Prince Charles. "I feel really let down, because he's been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. I will always love him, but there is a lot of hurt that's happened. I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try to heal that relationship. But they only know what they know."
Of William, he said, "I love William to bits. He's my brother. We've been through hell together. But we are on different paths."
Asked by Oprah how he would describe the relationship now, he said, "the relationship is space. Time heals all things, hopefully."
Oprah also asked if Harry had any regrets, to which he answered, "No. I'm really proud of us. I'm so proud of my wife. She safely delivered Archie during a period of time which was so cruel and so mean. Every day I was coming back to my life in London and she was crying while breastfeeding Archie. We did what we had to do."
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Meghan, meanwhile, said she had "one" regret: "My regret is believing them when I said I would be protected. I regret believing that, because had I really seen that wasn't happening, I would have been able to do more. But I wasn't supposed to see it. I wasn't supposed to know.
She continued, "Now because we are actually on the other side, we actually not just survived but are thriving."
