Prince Harry has sought to tie his modern image to the experiences of Princess Diana more than 20 years ago—but there are also striking similarities to his father, King Charles III.
The Duke of Sussex said in his mental health docuseries The Me You Can’t See in May 2021 that “family members have said ‘just play the game and your life will be easier.’ But I’ve got a hell of a lot of my mum in me. I feel as though I’m outside of the system but I’m still stuck there.”
Princess Diana remains popular 26 years after her death and her version of her story has been dramatized multiple times, including in The Crown and Spencer.
Aspects of Charles’ story may be less well known publicly, but he had his own moments of rebellion, public backlash and even scraps with the media.
Harry, Charles and U.K. Public Opinion
Both father and son were popular in Britain until a sudden fall from grace, through the collapse in support for Harry has proved greater than for Charles.
As late as 1991, 82 percent of Britain felt Charles would make a good king but by 1996, the year he divorced Diana, this dropped to 41 percent.
The loss of support came after a biography revealed his affair with now Queen Camilla for the first time in 1992 and two TV interviews several years later by him and Diana about their marriage. The public backed Diana, not the heir to the throne.
Harry has had the same experience in the United Kingdom, having been liked by 72 percent of Britains as late as November 2019—even after a year of media hostility—only to then crash in popularity after quitting the palace.
His support dropped to 55 percent in January 2020 after the Sussexes’ decision to quit was announced, after the Oprah Winfrey interview it dropped to 35 percent and following his book Spare, it reached its lowest point at 24 percent.
In the eyes of the British public, Harry appears to have lost the argument, just like his father almost 30 years ago.
Prince Harry and King Charles’ Bombshell Interviews
King Charles took the collapse of his marriage on TV before Diana did, in a 1994 sit-down interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, his authorized biographer.
Years later, the chat has far less enduring impact than Diana’s with the main standout quote being Charles’ own admission he had been faithful to Diana only “until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried.”
It is easy then to see why Diana’s stand-out quote in her BBC interview a year later became the one the history books remembered: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
Charles’ TV appearance was otherwise mostly about his charity work though Dimbleby’s biography, released the same year, argued that Diana’s mental health had put pressure on the relationship and caused the couple to become isolated.
Nothing he said, however, could alter or dilute the simple fact at the center of the story, that he had cheated on Diana and that the princess had been psychologically damaged by it.
Harry and Meghan’s tell-all interview with Winfrey was at the time compared to Diana’s interview but there are some comparisons between Harry and Charles in the aftermath. Both royals ultimately lost control of the narrative and were usurped by the statements of others.
One of the biggest allegations in the Winfrey interview was Meghan’s account of an unnamed royal having “concerns and conversations” about how dark her unborn child’s skin might be—but Harry himself undermined the impact of her account in interviews in January 2023.
He told ITV that Meghan did not accuse the royals of racism, but rather unconscious bias, and raised the prospect it may have been “curiosity” rather than “concern.”
He said: “But I think that you speak to the majority—maybe not all—but the majority of mixed-race couples around the world, that the white side of the family would wonder, whether talking openly about it or amongst themselves, what their kids are gonna look like.”
“The key word here was ‘concern,'” he added, “as opposed to ‘curiosity.'”
The facts remain far from clear and with this muddying of the waters about what really happened and how much malice was contained in whatever words were said, the momentum behind that strand of the interview has been sapped.
In its place, it may therefore be Queen Elizabeth II’s response to the prime-time special that proves the most memorable, when she said that “some recollections may vary.”
Criticisms of Family
Harry has criticized his family multiple times, saying his brother physically assaulted him during an argument about Meghan, accusing Camilla of leaking stories about him and saying that Charles cut him off financially.
Dimbleby’s book, The Prince of Wales: A Biography, written based on interviews with Charles and access to his friends and letters, also leveled allegations against his parents.
Charles’ father, Prince Philip, the book said, reduced Charles to tears in front of guests using “banter” while the only place he was guaranteed a hug was in the nursery with his nanny.
Wars With the Media
Harry has sought to avenge his own difficult experiences with the media, as well as those of Meghan and Diana, through lawsuits. Both Charles and Diana sued the media at points but it was Charles rather than the princess who took the case all the way.
Diana sued the Daily Mirror for publishing pictures of her exercising in a gym in 1993 though she ultimately settled out of court in 1995 after apologies from the newspaper and gym owner.
Charles sued The Mail on Sunday for publishing leaked extracts from his diaries and won in 2006.
He took the case all the way to court but avoided giving evidence by pursuing summary judgment, a quick win without a trial, reflecting that the strength of his case was overwhelming.
Harry has sued on a far bigger scale than either of his parents, however, with five ongoing lawsuits and nine launched since 2019.
Meghan filed a further case by herself against The Mail on Sunday over a private letter she sent her father, in which Charles’ lawsuit against the newspaper was cited as precedent.
