Prince Harry someone’s worried Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children will find themselves in the royal family’s “backup” role. Candid new interview from The Telegraph.
“Even though William and I have talked about it once or twice and he has made it clear to me that his children are not my responsibility, I still feel a responsibility knowing that at least one of these three children will end up like me, my backup,” Harry said in the article published Friday. “And it hurts, it worries me.”
“As I know very well in my family, if it’s not us … it will be someone else,” said the Prince.
The Duke of Sussex writes extensively in his new memoir about the dynamic between “heir” and “substitute”, and the latter serves as the title of the bestselling book.
Royal says the shorthand was used by his father, mother, and grandparents throughout his life, writing that “no judgment has been made about it, but there is also no ambiguity.”
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“I was born in case something happened to William,” says Harry in the book. “I was called in to provide backup, distraction, direction and spare parts if needed. Kidney, maybe. Blood transfusion. Bone marrow stain. All of this was articulated to me from the very beginning of my life journey and was reinforced regularly thereafter.”
The prince said he was upset about how the interaction would affect William and Kate’s children as well, and told The Telegraph that he “likes to fix things”.
“If I see a pattern of wrongdoing and behavior that hurts people, I will do everything I can to change it,” said Harry.
While the Telegraph interview was thought to be the final stop on his book tour, Harry also suggested that he had more stories to tell. Prince said the original “Replacement” draft was 800 pages – twice the length of the finished product – and “it could be two books if we put it that way”.
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He said he told ghostwriter JR Moehringer some things for context, but would add the caveat that “there is absolutely no way” to put them in the book.
“There were some things that I didn’t want the world to know, especially between my brother and me, and to some extent between my father and me. They would forgive me,” said Harry.
“Now you can argue that some of the things I put in there will never forgive me,” the royal continued. “But the way I see it, I’m willing to forgive you for everything you’ve done and I wish you’d sit down with me properly and instead of saying that I’m delusional and paranoid, you would really sit down and have a decent talk about it, because what I really want is some accountability. And from my wife an apology.”
There were no comments for Kensington Palace when reached by HuffPost.
More revealing from Harry’s “Backup” moment and media tour:
