Palace Insider Critiques Prince Harry for Turning His Back on the Royal Family

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published 1 January 2023

As the feud between brothers Prince William and Prince Harry (unfortunately) continues into 2023—which doesn’t look to be quelled at all by the release of Harry’s tell-all, Spare, in 10 days’ time—a Palace insider is speaking out about the brothers’ strained relationship, OK reports.

In the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, Harry was critical of how his brother handled his temper during a family meeting at Sandringham discussing his and wife Meghan Markle’s exit as working members of the royal family in early 2020. (“It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father say things that just simply weren’t true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and take it all in,” Harry said in the show. “The saddest part of it was this wedge created between myself and my brother.”) Now, Marie Claire reported earlier today, it looks to once again be William that gets the bulk of the criticism in Spare, which will be released on January 10.

“He’s changed for the worse since his marriage,” a Palace courtier says, claiming the Duke of Sussex is no longer “the man we once knew.”

The Palace source continues that “bullying is a hot button” for Harry and adds that Palace insiders stand ready to expose Meghan for her own bullying, saying “I think this all comes back to Meghan’s behavior and accusations she constantly belittled aides.”

In Harry & Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex revealed her struggles as she and Harry’s dynamic within the royal family began to shift.

“When you feel like people haven’t gotten any sense of who you are for so long, it’s really nice to just be able to have the opportunity to let people have a bit more of a glimpse into what’s happened and also who we are,” she said.

The Palace insider also admonishes Harry for having “the gall to brand his brother a bully because William called him on the carpet for abandoning his royal duties after a life of privilege,” the source says, adding that “he’s [Harry] turned his back on the monarchy, tradition, and his birth family.”

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.