Prince Harry Calls Queen Consort Camilla “Dangerous” in ’60 Minutes’ Interview

(Image credit: Getty)

published 9 January 2023

Heretofore, as contents of Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir Spare have leaked, we’ve heard criticisms of his brother, Prince William, his father, King Charles, and even his sister-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales. But nothing substantial yet of his stepmother, Queen Consort Camilla—until tonight’s 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper.

Harry minced no words about Camilla, calling her “dangerous” and that “there was going to be bodies left in the street” as Camilla rose from a disgraced mistress to the Queen Consort she is today.

Per The Sun, Harry said Camilla showed an “open willingness” to trade information with the British press as she rehabilitated her image to eventually marry the then Prince Charles in 2005.

After Cooper asked why Harry referred to Camilla as dangerous in Spare, Harry said “because of the need for her to rehabilitate her image. 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 information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being Queen Consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”

After meeting in the early 1970s, Charles and Camilla embarked on a romantic relationship before Camilla married Andrew Parker-Bowles and Charles married Diana Spencer. By the mid-1980s, Charles and Camilla were enmeshed in an affair that lasted through the end of the Parker-Bowles’ marriage and the then Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage, which officially ended in 1996 after a separation was announced in 1992. In 2005, Charles and Camilla married, and in the past 17 years Camilla’s image has undergone a radical transformation, from a vilified mistress to a celebrated senior member of the royal family who, in May, will be crowned alongside her husband at his coronation at Westminster Abbey.

Earlier in the interview, Harry parroted claims of Camilla being “the other woman,” saying “she was the villain. She was the third person in their marriage. She needed to rehabilitate her image.”

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.