Kate, the Princess of Wales, made her first public appearance Sunday since she announced she had completed chemotherapy and would return to some public duties.
Kate and her husband, Prince William, were seen Sunday attending church with King Charles III and Queen Camilla near their royal Balmoral estate in Scotland.
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Kate, 42, announced on Sept. 9 that she had completed treatment six months after revealing she had an undisclosed type of cancer. Her announcement came six weeks after Buckingham Palace announced that the king was being treated for cancer.
In a video announcing her progress, she said the path to full recovery would be long and she would take it day by day. She said she would undertake some limited engagements through the end of the year.
While she stepped away from most public duties during her treatment, Kate made two appearances earlier this year. First, during the king’s birthday parade in June, known as Trooping the Colour, and most recently during the men’s final at Wimbledon in July, where she received a standing ovation.
Prince William and his wife are doing everything they can to protect their children, even waiting until George, Charlotte and Louis would be on vacation before going public with the news.
“We hope that you will understand that, as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while I complete my treatment,” Kate said while announcement the news.
Catherine, the Princess of Wales, formerly Kate Middleton, was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy, she said in a video on Friday.
The children knew their grandfather had cancer and have now found out their mother does, too.
“As I have said to them; I am well and getting stronger every day,” she emphasized in her public message.
The king and the princess are said to be supporting each other through their treatment. King Charles even visited Kate in Windsor the day before this announcement.
Jobson: they are both going through this. They are both stars of the royal family. Very important central figures. And they’re sharing this. I think when she came back, i think he spoke about her courage which a lot of us agree. It left a lump in our throats when she delivered that message.
Buckingham Palace said the king is “so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did,” adding that his majesty has remained in the closest of contact with her.
Prince William is also stepping up supporting his wife and his father through these tough times and keeping up with his royal responsibilities.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace during the Royal Wedding on April 29, 2011 in London, England. John Stillwell/WPA Pool/Getty Images
Kate and William, whom she praised for the “comfort and reassurance” he had given her after her diagnosis, have been a couple for more than two decades.
Prince Louis holds his hands over his ears as jets roar over Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour parade with other members of they Royal family in London in June 2022. From left are Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall; Prince Charles; Queen Elizabeth II; Louis; Catherine; Charlotte; George; and William.
They met while studying at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and initially struck up a friendship. They began dating in 2003, around Christmas time, after she walked down the runway for a university charity fashion show wearing a see-through dress that, as the well-known story goes, captured the young prince’s attention.
After graduating in 2005 with a degree in art history, Kate briefly worked as an accessories buyer for British women’s fashion chain Jigsaw, continuing to date William amid frenzied media attention until they split up in 2007.
Their split lasted only a few months, however, and they publicly announced their engagement in November 2010. Kate’s sapphire and diamond engagement ring originally belonged to Princess Diana.
The couple cheers on the English rugby team during the Six Nations Championship match in London in February 2007. Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Media coverage at the time focused on Kate’s middle-class upbringing in Berkshire, southeast England, the Middleton family, and her mother Carole’s career journey from flight attendant to successful entrepreneur, spinning a “fairytale” narrative of the first commoner in more than 350 years to marry a prince in the direct line of succession to the throne.
Much pageantry and fanfare accompanied their wedding at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011. Kate wore a custom-made Alexander McQueen dress, complete with such precise detailing that seamstresses had to replace their sewing needles every three hours, according to British Vogue.
Around 1,900 guests attended the ceremony while the British public were granted an extra public holiday to mark the occasion. Across the country, 24 million viewers — about a third of the population — tuned in to watch.The US viewership was estimated around 22.8 million.
Just one week after Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, apologized for editing a photo of herself and her children on Mother’s Day, the UK royal family is in hot water again over another family portrait—which coincidentally is connected to Middleton.
Getty Images Wants AI to Stop Copying Them
Getty Images, one of the world’s largest photo agencies, alerted the public to the second manipulated image on Monday when it placed an editor’s note on a photo of the late Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. “Image has been digitally enhanced at source,” reads the editor’s note on the photo, which is still available for licensing.
The photo, a rare look at the late monarch with the family’s youngest members, was taken by Middleton in August 2022 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. It was shared by the official social media account for the Prince and Princess of Wales on April 21, 2023, to commemorate what would have been Queen Elizabeth’s 97th birthday. Queen Elizabeth died in September 2022. The photo was also sent to agencies like Getty.
Getty was one of many photo agencies, along with the Associated Press and Reuters, that removed Middleton’s Mother’s Day photo from its offerings last week. The agencies only allow minimal editing in the photos they distribute.
“Getty Images is undertaking a review of handout images and in accordance with its editorial policy is placing an editor’s note on images where the source has suggested they could be digitally enhanced,” a Getty Images spokesperson told Gizmodo in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
The press office of the Prince and the Princess of Wales couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
To my untrained eyes, it’s not clear how many edits have been made to the photo of Queen Elizabeth with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and Getty didn’t specify. CNN reports that it found 19 possible alterations, while The Telegraph found 7.
Here are the ones I can see with my face pressed up to my computer screen:
There is a misalignment of Queen Elizabeth’s plaid skirt near her right elbow. This one is pretty bad. The misalignment run from the skirt to the green couch, where the fabric dimples near the button don’t align.
There is a black cutout above Prince George’s shoulder. You can see it set against the green dress of Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor.
Prince Louis, who is on the right next to the vase with the red rose, looks like his head was cropped out from somewhere else if you zoom in.
Savannah Philips, the Queen’s great-granddaughter who is sitting next to her in red, looks like her blonde hair is going through her red sleeve. It then magically reappears.
On the side of the couch near the vase with the rose, there’s another bad alignment. Dimple marks don’t line up.
If you all find more, please feel free to let me know in the comments!
While Middleton hasn’t come out to say the edits were her work—it’s very possible she only took the photo—it’s hard not to make the connection. (The Royal Family credited the Princess as the photographer on social media.) The incident calls the UK royal family’s reputation into question and increases the storm of scrutiny already surrounding them due to Middleton’s months-long disappearance from the public eye after abdominal surgery. Middleton’s absence has prompted a slew of conspiracy theories, with some speculating that she’s getting a divorce from Prince William or is actually dead.
Coupled with AI, which has been creating fake celebrity porn and other atrocities, the incident seems to reflect the dawn of a new era where we can’t trust what we see.
In an interview last week, Phil Chetwynd, the global news director of Agence France-Presse (AFP) said that the palace had been considered a trusted source for a long time. Asked if it was still a trusted source, Chetwynd said: “No, absolutely not.”
Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, wants everyone to chill out about the photo of her and her kids, which has caused an international firestorm after being pulled by some of the world’s biggest photo agencies for being “manipulated.” According to Middleton, that is correct. In fact, she Photoshopped it herself.
Treating GIFs as Fine Art | Gizmodo Interview
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Middleton said in a post on her and Prince William’s X, formerly Twitter, account on Monday morning. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”
Middleton posted the photo, which shows her sitting down and smiling with her children George, Charlotte, and Louis, to social media on Sunday to commemorate the U.K.’s Mother Day holiday. Ironically, the photo appeared to be aimed at quelling the intense speculation around Middleton’s absence from the public eye for nearly two months after a planned abdominal surgery.
Her rare disappearance set off a swirl of rumors and conspiracy theories, with some stating that it was proof that she and Prince William were having problems in their marriage. Others speculated that she was suffering from a more serious health condition and could be in a coma.
“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” the Sunday photo caption read, ending with “C” to indicate that it was posted by Middleton. The caption also added that it was taken by Prince William in 2024.
As of the time of publication of this article, the photo had been viewed more than 68 million times on X. It was also still available on Middleton and Prince William’s X account.
Middleton’s Mother’s Day Photo Fuels Conspiracies
However, instead of calming the public’s conspiracy theories, Middleton’s recent photo only fueled them. Online sleuths pointed out that Middleton was not wearing her wedding ring in the photo—Gizmodo also could not see a ring on Middleton’s left hand—and that her face appeared different from a paparazzi photo taken less than a week ago. (It’s not clear that it was Middleton in the photo.)
The firestorm only intensified when some of the world’s biggest photo agencies pulled the image from their wires and issued a “kill notice,” claiming the photo had been manipulated. The Associated Press and Getty confirmed to Gizmodo that they had pulled the photo, with the AP stating that Princess Charlotte’s hand been edited.
“The Associated Press initially published the photo, which was issued by Kensington Palace. The AP later retracted the image because at closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards,” AP spokesperson Nicole Meir said in an emailed statement. “The photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.”
Reuters and Agence France-Presse also pulled it, according to The Telegraph. The photo agencies did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment.
While I didn’t see what was up with Princess Charlotte’s hand at first, after a lot of concentration and zooming, you can clearly see that part of her left arm has been erased. Some users on X also noticed that Middleton’s hair was strangely blurred, which I can also see. They also pointed out that the Princess’ hand holding Prince George was also blurred (ditto, I see that too).
Gizmodo reached out to media representatives for the royal family on Monday morning but did not immediately hear back.
TLDR: Middleton Is Probably Just a Mom Who Edited a Pic She Didn’t Like
With key words like “royals,” “missing princess,” “kill notice,” and “manipulated photo,” it’s no wonder why this incident quickly snowballed into one of the biggest stories of the last few days. I get it. But I also have a lot of friends who are moms, and a lot of friends who are women, that edit their photos all the time—especially when their significant other is the one snapping the pic. If I had to bet, that’s what probably happened here. (Feel free to remind me if I turn out to be wrong so I can eat my computer.)
In today’s ruthless and fake photo landscape, it’s normal to see “flaws” where there may not be any and want to fix them. Maybe Princess Charlotte had a seam popping out of her sweater, or maybe Middleton had a gray hair that was visible. Technology makes it easier than ever to fix these details or erase them, but it also creates a vicious cycle where people are motivated to keep editing their photos in search of “perfection.”
Unfortunately, while Middleton is probably just a mom who didn’t like the photo her husband took or simply looked at it for way too long, when you’re one of the main members of the UK royal family, you’re not allowed to do normal things like editing your photos. Middleton has been in the royal family’s orbit for more than two decades, so I have no doubt she knows this. But alas, she’s a human who’s recently had abdominal surgery and is under a lot of public scrutiny. In this situation, anyone can make a mistake, even a person who’s known for being a pro at her job.
LONDON — Kate, the Princess of Wales, is “doing well” as she continues to recover from abdominal surgery, according to a Kensington Palace spokesperson.
The spokesperson brushed off recent social media speculation about Kate’s health, telling ABC News in a statement Thursday, “Kensington Palace made it clear in January the timelines of the Princess’ recovery and we’d only be providing significant updates. That guidance stands.”
Previously, the last major update the palace had provided on Kate came on Jan. 29, when Kate returned home to Windsor following a nearly two-week hospital stay after undergoing what the palace described as a “planned abdominal surgery” in mid-January.
Kate was seen smiling and greeting fans as she walked to the royal family’s traditional Christmas morning service at Sandringham alongside William and their three children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte.
The Waleses were joined by other members of the royal family as well, including King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla.
Less than one month after Christmas, on Jan. 17, Kensington Palace announced that Kate had been admitted the previous day to The London Clinic for “planned abdominal surgery.”
The palace did not provide further details on the type of surgery Kate underwent, but confirmed to ABC News at the time that the princess’s medical issue was non-cancerous.
“The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate,” the palace said in a statement issued on Jan. 17. “She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private.”
“The Princess of Wales wishes to apologise to all those concerned for the fact that she has to postpone her upcoming engagements,” the statement continued. “She looks forward to reinstating as many as possible, as soon as possible.”
William, the heir to the throne, postponed his public engagements while Kate was hospitalized.
He was spotted privately entering and exiting The London Clinic to visit Kate during her stay. The couple’s three children are not believed to have visited Kate in the hospital.
Kate is now recovering at home
The palace announced on Jan. 29, nearly two weeks after Kate underwent surgery, that the princess had been discharged from the hospital.
From there, Kate continued her recovery at the family’s home in Windsor, about 30 miles outside of London.
“The Princess of Wales has returned home to Windsor to continue her recovery from surgery. She is making good progress,” a palace spokesperson said in a statement at the time. “The Prince and Princess wish to say a huge thank you to the entire team at The London Clinic, especially the dedicated nursing staff, for the care they have provided.”
The spokesperson added, “The Wales family continues to be grateful for the well wishes they have received from around the world.”
Since being home from the hospital, Kate has also spent time with her family at Anmer Hall, their home in Norfolk.
William has issued one public statement on Kate’s health
Later that day, William joined actor Tom Cruise at a central London hotel for a charity fundraising gala for London’s Air Ambulance.
At the gala, William made his first and so far only public remarks about Kate.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you, also, for the kind messages of support for Catherine and for my father, especially, in recent days,” William said. “It means a great deal to us all.”
Following up with a joke, William continued, “It’s fair to say the past few weeks have had a rather ‘medical’ focus. So I thought I’d come to an air ambulance function to get away from it all.”
William has since attended the BAFTAS on his own, an event at which Kate is traditionally by his side.
On Tuesday, William sparked speculation after he missed a service of Thanksgiving for his godfather, King Constantine of Greece, at St. George’s Chapel, citing a “personal matter.”
William returned to his public duties on Thursday, visiting the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London.
Kate has been completely out of the public eye while recovering, in contrast to Charles
William’s father Charles was briefly hospitalized at The London Clinic at the same time as Kate in January.
Charles stayed multiple nights at The London Clinic for a planned procedure to treat an enlarged prostate.
Shortly after he was discharged from the hospital, Buckingham Palace announced the 75-year-old king had been diagnosed with cancer.
The palace has not specified Charles’s type of cancer, the stage of cancer or the type of treatment he is receiving.
In contrast to Kate’s absence, however, Charles has been seen publicly since his diagnosis, including attending church with Camilla in Sandringham and traveling back and forth to London for treatment.
Last week, the palace released photographs of Charles reading some of the cards and letters frpm well-wishes the palace says the king has received.
Kate’s first public appearance could be on or around Easter Sunday
At the time of her surgery, the palace said Kate is not likely to resume her public duties until later this spring.
In past years, William and Kate and their children have been photographed walking to church on Easter Sunday.
WANTED: Kate Middleton, The Princess of Wales, presumed kidnapped by King Charles and the Royal Family unless returned to our TV screens immediately.
I’m not one to follow the Royal Family — all I know is that Queen Elizabeth may be reincarnated into Trisha Paytas’ baby, Malibu Barbie, and they presumably disappeared Princess Di. And while my phone didn’t scream with a missing persons report, my Twitter (X?) timeline is all ablaze with conspiracies about what happened to Kate.
Amidst confirmation that King Charles III is battling cancer, followers of the Royals have noticed a peculiar missing piece at certain public events: Prince William’s wife, Kate. While William made a last-minute appearance at Greece’s King Constantine II’s funeral, Kate was noticeably absent. According to Vanity Fair,
Middleton, 42, has been recovering from her procedure at Adelaide Cottage, the couple’s residence at the royal family’s Windsor Castle estate, since she was discharged from a London hospital after a week-plus inpatient stay following the surgery.
And while we hope the Princess of Wales is in good health, the people of the internet have been making their own assumptions about what happened to Kate Middleton. Since we can’t help but speculate, social media users have tossed about ideas like she’s waiting out a bad haircut, she’s gotten plastic surgery, she’s run away to live in America, the list goes on…
Across the pond at Buckingham Palace, sources claim it was planned abdominal surgery (and we hope she’s safe and healthy)…but if we chose to believe everything the Royals said, we wouldn’t have The Crown.
Prince Harry has been vocal about his rift with his brother Prince William, but what about their wives? Do Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle get along? A royal expert’s new book is shedding light on the strain between Kate and Meghan’s relationship in recent years.
Back in 2017, it appeared that Kate and Meghan took an instant liking to each other. However, rumors about pre-wedding problems emerged a year later when the British tabloids alleged that Meghan left Kate in tears. But in a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the former Suits star clarified that the opposite had occured.
In Prince Harry’s 2023 memoir Spare, the royal expanded on the heated exchange, which began when Kate reached out to Meghan about Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress for the upcoming royal wedding. “Charlotte’s dress is too big, too long, too baggy,” Kate’s text said, according to the book. “She cried when she tried it on a home.”
“Right, and I told you the tailor has been standing by since 8am. Here. At KP,” Meghan replied, according to Harry. “Can you take Charlotte to have it altered, as the other mums are doing?” Middleton then said it wouldn’t be “sufficient” and that it needed to be completely remade instead.
Although Middleton eventually had the dress altered, The Duke of Sussex came home and “found Meg on the floor. Sobbing,” he wrote. The following day, Harry recalled that Middleton apologized and brought over flowers and a card.
“Everyone in the institution knew it wasn’t true,” Meghan told Oprah in 2021. “I’m not sharing that piece about Kate in any way to be disparaging to her. I think it’s really important for people to understand the truth.”
Royal Expert Omid Scobie revealed in his upcoming book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, that Kate “watched in silence” as the narrative played out in the British media. Although Kate offered an apology, “the damage from the public rift was already done.” So, where do Kate and Meghan stand in 2023?
Do Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle get along?
Do Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle get along? The Princess of Wales allegedly has a physical reaction to hearing her sister-in-law’s name. In his forthcoming novel Endgame, Scobie wrotethat Kate has “jokingly shivered” when Meghan was mentioned.
The British journalist added that Kate and Meghan have had “almost zero direct communication” since 2019, but that they’ve shared “short pleasantries” over the years.”
According to the book, which comes out on Nov. 28, there is reportedly no prospect of reconciliation between Kate and Meghan. Scobie suggests that Kate is not inclined to heal her relationship with Prince Harry, either.
The two appeared alongside their estranged husbands and the rest of the royal family at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral last year. It also marked the first time Meghan was seen publicly with her niece and nephew since she and Prince Harry stepped away from their royal duties in 2020.
The Duchess was noticeably absent from King Charles and Queen Camilla’s coronation at Westminster Abbey in May 2023. Scobie wrote that Archie’s birthday “played a factor in the decision” for Meghan’s absence, while Harry thought it would be a “fairly quick trip to the UK.” Ultimately, Meghan did not want to “dive back into the soap opera of the court,” according to Scobie.
Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival will hit bookshelves on Nov. 28.
Kate Middleton has been known to play the occasional game of beer pong, and can be “ultra competitive” when she does.
That’s one of the many revelations about the Princess of Wales that emerged when she and husband Prince William joined Princess Anne on “The Good, The Bad & The Rugby”, the podcast co-hosted by former rugby great Mike Tindall.
Tindall, of course, is also married to the Princess Royal’s daughter, Zara, and he was happy to use his family connections to get the three senior royals on the show.
She and William went on to admit they can get competitive with each other, particularly when playing table tennis, admitting that they’ve never “actually managed to finish a game.”
“It becomes a mental challenge between the two of us,” she said, prompting her husband to explain that the games typically devolve into “who can out-mental each other.”
The entire conversation can be seen in the video above.
Prince Harry, his wife Meghan, and her mother were involved in a “near catastrophic” car chase with paparazzi photographers in New York after an event, drawing some parallels with the high-speed Paris car chase that killed his mother Princess Diana in 1997. What do you think?
“At least we’ll finally see a photo of the elusive Harry And Meghan.”
Dion Hudson, Plastic Bag Lobbyist
New Yorkers Describe Their Worst Experiences With Rats
“You’d think after Princess Diana’s tragic death, they’d know to just give the paparazzi what they want.”
Carl Kasperson, Style Coach
“What’s it going to take for them to finally leave the paparazzi alone?”
Prince Harry may have “stepped back” from his royal duties in 2020, but he and his wife, Meghan, the duchess of Sussex, certainly haven’t stepped away from the spotlight. Just last month they appeared in a six-part Netflix documentary about their relationship and their decision to leave their royal lives behind. But now, the 38-year-old Prince Harry is telling his own story. In a new memoir, coming out Tuesday, called “Spare” — a nod to his backup role in the line of succession. The book is a stunning break with royal protocol. It’s a deeply personal account of Prince Harry’s decades-long struggle with grief after the death of his mother Princess Diana, and a revealing look at his fractured relationships with his father, King Charles, his stepmother, the Queen Consort Camilla, and his brother, Prince William, the heir to his spare.
Anderson Cooper: You write about a contentious meeting you had with him in 2021. You said, “I looked at Willy, really looked at him maybe for the first time since we were boys. I took it all in, his familiar scowl, which had always been his default in dealings with me, his alarming baldness, more advanced than my own, his famous resemblance to Mummy which was fading with time, with age.” That’s pretty cutting.
Prince Harry: I don’t see it as cutting at all. Um, you know, my brother and I love each other. I love him deeply. There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years. None of anything I’ve written, anything that I’ve included is ever intended to hurt my family. 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.
Anderson Cooper: I think so many people around the world watched you and your brother grow up and feel like you two were inseparable. And yet in reading the book, you have lived separate lives from the time your mom died.
Prince Harry: Uh-huh (AFFIRM)
Anderson Cooper: Even when you were in the same school, in high school…
Prince Harry: Sibling rivalry.
Anderson Cooper: Your brother told you, “Pretend we don’t know each other.”
Prince Harry: Yeah, and at the time it hurt. I couldn’t make sense of it. I was like, “What do you mean? We’re now at the same school. Like, I haven’t seen you for ages, now we get to hang out together.” He’s like, “No, no, no, when we’re at school we don’t know each other.” And I took that personally. But yes, you’re absolutely right, you hit the nail on the head. Like, we had a very similar traumatic experience, and then we– we dealt with it two very different ways.
Prince Harry
Anderson Cooper: William had tried to talk to you occasionally about your mom, but, as a child you could not– you couldn’t respond.
Prince Harry: For me, it was never a case of, “I don’t want to talk about it with you.” I just don’t know how to talk about it. I never ever thought that maybe talking about it with my brother or with anybody else at that point would be therapeutic.
In August 1997, Harry and William were vacationing in Scotland with their father. Harry was 12, William, 15. They were asleep at Balmoral Castle on August 31st, when Harry was awakened by his father who told him his mother had been in a car crash in Paris.
Anderson Cooper: In the book you write, “He says, ‘They tried, darling boy. I’m afraid she didn’t make it.’ These phrases remain in my mind like darts on a board,” you say. Did– did you cry?
Prince Harry: No. No. Never shed a single tear at that point. I was in shock, you know? Twelve years old, sort of 7:00– 7:30 in the morning early. Your father comes in, sits on your bed, puts his hand on your knee and tells you “There’s been an accident.” I– I couldn’t believe.
Anderson Cooper: And you write in the book that, “Pa didn’t hug me. He wasn’t great at showing emotions under normal circumstances. But his hand did fall once more on my knee and he said, ‘It’s going to be okay.’” But after that, nothing was okay for a long time.
Harry says his memories of the next few days are fragmented. But he does remember this: greeting mourners outside Kensington Palace in London the day before his mother’s funeral.
Anderson Cooper: When you see those videos now, what do you think?
Prince Harry: I think it’s bizarre, because I see William and me smiling. I remember the guilt that I felt.
Anderson Cooper: Guilt about?
Prince Harry: The fact that the people that we were meeting were showing more emotion than we were showing, maybe more emotion than we even felt.
Anderson Cooper: They were crying, but you weren’t.
Prince Harry: There was a lotta tears. I talk about how wet people’s hands were. And I couldn’t understand it at first.
Anderson Cooper: Their hands were wet from crying–
Prince Harry: Their hands were wet from wiping their own tears away. 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. As if I was some sort of middle person for their grief. And that really stood out for me.
The funeral, on a cool September morning, was watched by as many as 2.5 billion people around the world. Perhaps the most indelible image: Prince Harry and his brother, walking behind their mother’s casket on its way to Westminster Abbey.
Anderson Cooper: What do you remember about that walk?
Prince Harry: How quiet it was. I remember, the occasional wail and screaming of someone. I remember the horse hooves on the road.
Prince Harry: The bridles of the horses, the gun carriage, the wheels, the occasional gravel stone underneath your shoe. But mainly the– the silence.
After the service, Princess Diana’s body was brought for burial to her family’s ancestral estate, Althorp.
Prince Harry: Once my mother’s coffin actually went into the ground, that was the first time that I actually cried. Yeah, there was never another time.
Anderson Cooper: All through your teenage years, you did– you didn’t cry about it?
Prince Harry: No.
Anderson Cooper: You didn’t believe she was dead.
Prince Harry: Unh-uh (NEGATIVE). For a long– for a long time, I just refused to accept that she was– she was gone. Um, part of, you know, she would never do this to us, but also part of, maybe this is all part of a plan.
Anderson Cooper: I mean, you really believed that maybe she had just decided to disappear for a time?
Prince Harry: For a time, and then that she would call us and that we would go and join her, yeah.
Anderson Cooper: How long did you believe that?
Prince Harry: Years. Many, many years. And William and I talked about it as well. He had– he had um, similar thoughts.
Anderson Cooper: You write in the book, “I’d often say it to myself first thing in the morning, ‘Maybe this is the day. Maybe this is the day that she’s gonna reappear.’”
Prince Harry: Yeah, hope. I had huge amounts of hope
He held onto that hope into adulthood. When Harry was 20, he asked to see the police report about the crash that killed his mother, her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed and their driver Henri Paul while they were being pursued by paparazzi in a Paris tunnel.
Anderson Cooper: The files contained photographs of the crash scene. Why did you want to see it?
Prince Harry: Mainly proof. Proof that she was in the car. Proof that she was injured. And proof that the very paparazzi that chased her into the tunnel were the ones that were taking photographs– photographs of her lying half dead on the back seat of the car.
Anderson Cooper: You write in the book, “I hadn’t been aware before this moment,” talking about looking at the pictures of the crash scene, “that the last thing Mummy saw on this earth was a flash bulb.”
Prince Harry: Yep
Anderson Cooper: That’s what you saw in the pictures?
Prince Harry: Uh-huh (AFFIRM) (good face). Well they were – the pictures showed the reflection of a group of photographs taking photographs through the window, and the reflection on the window was– was them.
He only saw some of the crash photos, his private secretary and advisor dissuaded him from looking at the rest.
Prince Harry: All I saw was the back of my mum’s head– slumped on the back seat. There were other more gruesome photographs, but I will be eternally grateful to him for denying me the ability to inflict pain on myself by seeing that. Because that’s the kinda stuff that sticks in your mind forever.
Harry says he believed his mother might stillbe alive until he was 23 and visited Paris for the first time.
Anderson Cooper: You told your driver, “I want to go to the tunnel where my mom died?”
Prince Harry: I wanted to see whether it was possible driving at the speed that Henri Paul was driving that you could lose control of a car and plow into a pillar killing almost everybody in that car. I need to take this journey. I need to ride the same route–
Anderson Cooper: The same tunnel, the same speed–
Prince Harry: All of it.
Anderson Cooper: –your mother was going.
Prince Harry: Yup. Because William and I had already been told, “The event was like a bicycle chain. If you remove one of those chains, the end result would not have happened.” And the paparazzi chasing was part of that. But yet, everybody got away with it.
Harry writes he and his brother weren’t satisfied with the results of a 2006 investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police, concluding Diana’s driver, Henri Paul, had been drinking and the crash was a “tragic accident.”
Prince Harry: William and I considered reopening the inquest. Because there were so many gaps and so many holes in it. Which just didn’t add up and didn’t make sense.
Anderson Cooper: Would you still like to do that?
Prince Harry: I don’t even know if it’s an option now. But no, I think– brrrr– would I like to do that now? It’s a hell of a question, Anderson.
Anderson Cooper: Do you feel you have the answers that you need to have about what happened to your mom?
Prince Harry: Truth be known, no. I don’t think I do. And I don’t think my brother does either. I don’t think the world does. Um – do I need any more than I already know? No. I don’t think it would change much.
Harry now says it wasn’t until he served in combat with the British Army in Afghanistan that he finally found purpose and a sense of normalcy.
Prince Harry: My military career saved me in many regard.
Anderson Cooper: How so?
Prince Harry: Got me out of the spotlight from the– from the U.K. press. I was able to focus on a purpose larger than myself, to be wearing the same uniform as everybody else, to feel normal for the first time in my life. And accomplish some of the biggest challenges that I ever had. You know, I was training to become an Apache helicopter pilot. You don’t get a pass for being a prince.
Anderson Cooper: The Apache doesn’t give a crap about who you are.
Prince Harry: No, there’s– there’s no prince autopilot button you (LAUGH) can press and just whff– takes you away. I was a really good candidate for the military. I was a young man in my 20s suffering from shock. But I was now in the front seat of an Apache shooting it, flying it, monitoring four radios simultaneously and being there to save and help anybody that was on the– on the ground with a radio screaming, “We need support, we need air support.” That was my calling. I felt healing from that weirdly.
Anderson Cooper: And that multi-tasking the brain work of that, that felt good to you?
Prince Harry: It felt like I was turning pain into a purpose. I didn’t have the awareness at the time that I was living my life in adrenaline, and that was the case from age 12, from the moment that I was told that my mom had died.
Anderson Cooper: you say, “War didn’t begin in Afghanistan. It began in August 1997.”
Prince Harry: Yeah. The war for me unknowingly was when my mum died.
Anderson Cooper: Who were you fighting?
Prince Harry: Myself. I had a huge amount of frustration and blame towards the British press for their part in it.
Anderson Cooper: Even at 12 at that young you were feeling that toward the British press?
Prince Harry: Yeah. I mean, it was obvious to us as kids the British press’ part in our mother’s misery and I had a lot of anger inside of me that luckily, I never expressed to anybody. But I resorted to drinking heavily. Because I wanted to numb the feeling, or I wanted to distract myself from how… whatever I was thinking. And I would, you know, resort to drugs as well.
Harry admits he smoked pot and used cocaine. And he writes that in his late 20s he felt “hopeless” and “lost.”
Prince Harry: There was this weight on my chest that I felt for so many years that I was never able to cry. So I was constantly trying to find a way to cry, but– in even sitting on my sofa and going over as many memories as I could muster up about my mum. And sometimes I watched videos online.
Anderson Cooper: Of your mom?
Prince Harry: Of my mum.
Anderson Cooper: Hoping to cry?
Prince Harry: Yup.
Anderson Cooper: And you couldn’t.
Prince Harry: I couldn’t.
He sought out help from a therapist for the first time seven years ago. And he reveals he’s also tried more experimental treatments.
Anderson Cooper: You write in the book about psychedelics, Ayahuasca, psilocybin, mushrooms.
Prince Harry: I would never recommend people to do this recreationally. But doing it with the right people if you are suffering from a huge amount of loss, grief or trauma, then these things have a way of working as a medicine.
Anderson Cooper: They showed you something. What did they show you?
Prince Harry: For me, they cleared the windscreen, the windshield the misery of loss. They cleared away this idea that I had in my head that– that my mother, that I needed to cry to prove to my mother that I missed her. When in fact, all she wanted was for me to be happy.
Prince Harry says he’s found that happiness with his wife in California, but he’s far from at peace with the royal family.
Harry’s memoir “Spare”, is anything but spare in its unflattering portrayal of the royal family, especially his stepmother, Camilla, now the queen consort. She married then-Prince Charles in 2005, though the two had been romantically involved on and off for decades. When Princess Diana famously referred to Camilla as the third person in her marriage, the British tabloids ran with it, and Prince Harry has never forgotten.
Prince Harry: She was the villain. She was the third person in their marriage. She needed to rehabilitate her image.
Anderson Cooper: You and your brother both directly asked your dad not to marry Camilla?
Prince Harry: Yes.
Anderson Cooper: Why?
Prince Harry: We didn’t think it was necessary. We thought that it was gonna cause more harm than good and that if he was now with his person, that– surely that’s enough. Why go that far when you don’t necessarily need to? We wanted him to be happy. And we saw how happy he was with her. So, at the time, it was, “Ok.”
Anderson Cooper: You wrote that she started a campaign in the British press to pave the way for a marriage. And you wrote, “I even wanted Camilla to be happy. Maybe she’d be less dangerous if she was happy.” How was she dangerous?
Prince Harry: Because of the need for her to rehabilitate her image.
Anderson Cooper: That made her dangerous?
Prince Harry: That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press. And there was open willingness on both sides to trade of information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being Queen consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street because of that.
Harry says over the years, he was one of those bodies. He accuses Camilla and even his father, at times, of using him or William to get better tabloid coverage for themselves. Prince Harry writes, Camilla, “sacrificed me on her personal P.R. altar.”
Prince Harry: If you are led to believe, as a member of the family, that being on the front page, having positive headlines, positive stories written about you, is going to improve your reputation or increase the chances of you being accepted as monarch by the British public, then that’s what you’re gonna do.
In his book, Harry writes that when he introduced Meghan Markle to his family in 2016, his father initially took a liking to her, but William was skeptical, disdainfully referring to Meghan as “an American actress.” Though Harry doesn’t specify who – he says other members of the royal family were uneasy as well.
Prince Harry: Right from the beginning, before they even had a chance to get to know her. And the U.K. press jumped on that. And here we are.
Anderson Cooper: And what was that based on, that mistrust?
Prince Harry: 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.
Anderson Cooper: But all those things within the family also were– were sources of mistrust,
Prince Harry: Yes. You know, my family read the tabloids, you know? It’s laid out– at breakfast when everyone comes together. So, whether you walk around saying you believe it or not, it’s still– it’s still leaving an imprint in your mind. So if you have that judgment based on a stereotype right at the beginning, it’s very, very hard to get over that. And a large part of it for the family, but also the British press and numerous other people is, like, “He’s changed. She must be a witch. He’s changed.” As opposed to yeah, I did change, and I’m really glad I changed. Because rather than getting drunk, falling out of clubs, taking drugs, I had now found the love of my life, and I now had the opportunity to start a family with her.
Soon after their relationship became public, Harry insisted on putting out a statement condemning some of the tabloid coverage of Meghan and what he called quote “the racial undertones of comment pieces.”
Anderson Cooper: You write that your dad and your brother, William, were furious with you for doing that. Why?
Prince Harry: They felt as though it made them look bad. They felt as though they didn’t have a chance or weren’t able to do that for their partners. What Meghan had to go through was similar in some part to what Kate and what Camilla went through, very different circumstances. But then you add in the race element, which was what the press– British press jumped on straight away. I went into this incredibly naïve. I had no idea the British press were so bigoted. Hell, I was probably bigoted before–
Anderson Cooper: You– you–
Prince Harry: –the relationship with– with Meghan.
Anderson Cooper: You think you were bigoted before the relationship with Meghan.
Prince Harry: I– I don’t know. Put it this way, I didn’t see what I now see.
They were married in May 2018, in a ceremony that seemed to promise a more modern and inclusive royal family — and given the titles duke and duchess of Sussex. But behind the scenes, according to Harry, William’s mistrust of Meghan only worsened.
Anderson Cooper: Did you ever try to meet with William and Kate to try to defuse the tension?
In early 2019, Harry writes, the rancor between William and him exploded at Harry’s cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace.
Anderson Cooper: Your arguments with your brother became physical.
Prince Harry: It was a buildup of– frustration, I think, on his part. It was at a time where he was being told certain things by people within his office. And at the same time, he was consuming a lot of the tabloid press, a lot of the stories. And he had a few issues, which were based not on reality. And I was defending my wife. And he was coming for my wife– she wasn’t there at the time– but through the things that he was saying. I was defending myself. And we moved from one room into the kitchen. And his frustrations were growing, and growing, and growing. He was shouting at me. I was shouting back at him. It wasn’t nice. It wasn’t pleasant at all. And he snapped. And he pushed me to the floor.
Anderson Cooper: He knocked you over?
Prince Harry: He knocked me over. I landed on the dog bowl.
Anderson Cooper: You cut your back.
Prince Harry: Yeah. I cut my back. I didn’t know about it at the time. But, yeah, he– he apologized afterwards. It was a pretty nasty experience, but—
Anderson Cooper: He asked you not to tell anybody– not to tell Meghan?
Prince Harry: Yeah. And– and I wouldn’t have done. And, I didn’t until she– until she saw on the– on my back. She goes, “What’s that?” I was like, “Huh, what?” I actually didn’t know what she was talking about. I looked in the mirror. I was like, “Oh s***.” Well, ’cause I’d never s-I hadn’t seen it.
Meghan has said constant criticism and pressure led her in the winter of 2019 to contemplate suicide.
Prince Harry: The thing that’s terrified me the most is history repeating itself.
Anderson Cooper: You really feared that your wife, Meghan…
Prince Harry: Yes, I feared, I feared a lot that the end result, the fact that I lost my mum when I was 12 years old, could easily happen again to my wife.
In January 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan announced they intended to, in their words, step back as senior members of the royal family. They moved to California three months later. Then there was the headline-grabbing interview with Oprah Winfrey and a deal with Netflix worth a reported $100 million. Critics say the duke and duchess are cashing in on their royal titles while they still can.
Anderson Cooper: Why not renounce your titles as duke and duchess?
Prince Harry: And what difference would that make?
Anderson Cooper: One of the criticisms that you’ve received is that okay, fine, you wanna move to California, you wanna step back from the institutional role. Why be so public? Why reveal conversations you’ve had with your father or– with your brother? You say you tried to do this privately.
Prince Harry: And every single time I’ve tried to do it privately there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife. You know, the family motto is never complain, never explain. But it’s just a motto. And it doesn’t really hold–
Anderson Cooper: There’s a lotta complaining and a lot of explaining.
Prince Harry: Endless–
Anderson Cooper: Private– being done in– through leaks.
Prince Harry: Through leaks.
Prince Harry continues to claim he would never leak against his family.
Prince Harry: So now, trying to speak a language that perhaps they understand, I will sit here and speak truth to you with the words that come out of my mouth, rather than using someone else, an unnamed source, to feed in lies or a narrative to a tabloid media that literally radicalizes its readers to then potentially cause harm to my family, my wife, my kids.
Last month, the British tabloid The Sun published a vicious column about Meghan written by a tv host.
Anderson Cooper: He said, “I hate her. At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day where she is made to walk naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame,’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.” Did that surprise you?
Prince Harry: Did it surprise me? No. Is it shocking? Yes. I mean, thank you for proving our point.
Anderson Cooper: Has there been any response from the palace
Prince Harry: No. And there comes a point when silence is betrayal
Harry has been back in the United Kingdom. He was in London last September for a charity event when the palace announced his grandmother, the queen, was under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
Prince Harry: 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 fam– family members that live within the Windsor and Ascot area were jumping on a plane together, a plane with 12, 14, maybe 16 seats.
Anderson Cooper: You were not invited on that plane?
Prince Harry: I was not invited.
By the time Harry got to Balmoral on his own, the queen was dead.
Prince Harry: I walked into the hall, and my aunt was there to greet me. And she asked me if I wanted to see her. I thought about it for about five seconds, thinking, “Is this a good idea?” And I was, like, “You know what? You can– you can do this. You– you need to say goodbye.” So I went upstairs, took my jacket off and walked in and just spent some time with her alone.
Anderson Cooper: Where was she?
Prince Harry: She was in her bedroom. I was actually– I was really happy for her. Because she’d finished life. She’d completed life, and her husband was– was waiting for her. And the two of them are buried together.
As they had 25 years earlier, Harry and William found themselves walking together, but apart, this time behind their grandmother’s casket.
Anderson Cooper: Do you speak to William now? Do you text?
Prince Harry: Currently, no. But I look forward to– I look forward to us being able to find peace. I want—
Anderson Cooper: How long has it been since you spoke?
Prince Harry: A while.
Anderson Cooper: Do you speak to your dad?
Prince Harry: We aren’t– we haven’t spoken for quite a while. No, not recently.
Anderson Cooper: Can you see a day when you would return as a full-time member of the royal family?
Prince Harry: No. I can’t see that happening.
Anderson Cooper: In the book, you called this, “A– full-scale rupture.” Can it be healed?
Prince Harry: Yes. The ball is very much in their court, but, you know, Meghan and I have continued to say that we will openly apologize for anything that we did wrong, but every time we ask that question, no one’s telling us sp– the specifics or anything. There needs to be a constructive conversation, one that can happen in private that doesn’t get leaked.
Anderson Cooper: I assume they would say, “Well, how can we trust you how do we know that you’re not gonna reveal whatever conversations we have in an interview somewhere?”
Prince Harry: This all started with them briefing, daily, against my wife with lies to the point of where my wife and I had to run away from our count– my country.
Anderson Cooper: It’s hard, I think, for anybody to imagine a family dynamic that is so “Game of Thrones” without dragons.
Prince Harry: I don’t watch “Game of Thrones,” but–
Anderson Cooper: Oh. Okay.
Prince Harry: –there’s def– but there’s definitely dragons. And that’s again the third party which is the British Press so ultimately without the British press as part of this, we would probably still be a fairly dysfunctional family, like, a lot are. But at the heart of it, there is a family, without question. Um – and I really look forward to having that family element back. I look forward to having a relationship with my brother. I look forward to having a relationship with my father and other members of my family.
Anderson Cooper: You want that?
Prince Harry: That’s all I’ve ever asked for.
We reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment. Its representatives demanded that before considering responding, 60 Minutes provide them with our report prior to airing it tonight, which is something we never do.
Produced by Draggan Mihailovich. Associate producer, Emily Cameron. Broadcast associate, Eliza Costas. Edited by Warren Lustig.
Anderson Cooper, anchor of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” has contributed to 60 Minutes since 2006. His exceptional reporting on big news events has earned Cooper a reputation as one of television’s pre-eminent newsmen.
Netflix’s upcoming docuseries “Harry & Meghan” is proving to be an emotional and nail-biting rollercoaster even before its release. In a new trailer that dropped on Monday, Prince Harry teased that they’ll reveal “the full truth” behind what led to the couple’s split from the royal family.
“No one knows the full truth,” Prince Harry says in the trailer, which got nearly 200,000 views within just a few hours of its release on YouTube and 1.7 million on Twitter. “We know the full truth.”
The docuseries is set to be released in six episodes, combined in two “volumes” — the first coming this Thursday, Dec. 8, and the rest on Dec. 15. Netflix calls it “an unprecedented and in-depth documentary series” that allows the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to share their side of the story about their relationship and eventual exit from the royal family.
Harry & Meghan. A Netflix Global Event. Volume I: December 8 Volume II: December 15 pic.twitter.com/WpFzVEC7Yx
Along with interviews with Harry and Meghan themselves, the series will also include commentary from historians and friends and family, most of whom, according to Netflix, “have never spoken publicly before about what they witnessed.”
The latest trailer comes just days after the first sneak peek for the series dropped. While the first trailer promised an emotional look at the couple’s relationship and experiences, the latest provides a glimpse into the turmoil and alleged manipulation that happened behind the scenes.
“There’s a hierarchy of the family. You know, there’s leaking, but there’s also planting of stories,” Prince Harry says in the trailer. “…It’s a dirty game.”
With footage of his mother, Princess Diana, being hounded by the press, Harry continues to say, “The pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution, this feeding frenzy.”
Diana, Princess of Wales, was famously killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997 as she was being chased by paparazzi.
“I was terrified,” Harry says in the trailer. “I didn’t want history to repeat itself.”
That moment in the trailer was only amplified by the words of Meghan: “I realized, ‘they’re never gonna protect you.’”
Images of tabloids, paparazzi jostling with cameras, and the couple clearly going through times of distress continue on the screen as commentators provide snippets of analysis.
“There was a war against Meghan to suit other people’s agendas,” one woman says, followed by a man saying, “It’s about hatred. it’s about race.”
Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have been relatively open about their struggles with the palace. They ultimately decided to step back as senior members of the family in 2020 and have worked to become financially independent. They now live in California.
Last year, Harry told “The Late Late Show” host James Corden that life in the U.K. as members of the royal family was “toxic.” Months later in an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey, the couple detailed how they were treated by members of the royal family as their relationship progressed and when Meghan became pregnant with their first child, Archie.
“We did what we had to do,” Harry told Winfrey about the decision to leave the royal family.
