Royal family set up ‘war room’ to deal with Prince Harry’s accusations; William wanted to release statement: Report

In his forthcoming memoir, Prince Harry is opening up about the many challenges about his life as a royal. He has revealed how living in the royal household has been extremely hard for him and his wife Meghan Markle. The couple quit royal titles in early 2020. Now it has been revealed that the royal family’s senior advisers have reportedly set up a de-facto ‘war room’ in order to deal with any sort of fallout caused by the revelations from Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, which will be out on January 10. (Also read: Prince Harry says Meghan Markle was confused by Prince Andrew’s identity, thought he was Queen Elizabeth II’s assistant)

According to a report, several members of the top staff have been meeting to discuss the potential situation at Sandringham Estate, where the royal family had gathered to celebrate their first Christmas after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Reports suggest that the royals and their staffers have been devising every single thread that could be brought up in the wake up to the release of Spare, and are very much aware of the consequences it will lead to for the royal family.

In a report by Page Six, a palace insider was quoted as he expressed the tension within the royal household leading to the recent revelations by Prince Harry. The insider said, “There were undoubtedly fears about what Harry was going to write, and in particular they were worried about the highly personal moments of their lives being retold. The King wanted to move ahead with the traditional ‘stiff upper lip’ attitude and follow in the Queen’s famous footsteps of ‘never complain, never explain’, but the Prince of Wales argued that perhaps the family should, in fact, go on the offensive and release a statement, much in the same way he said ‘We are very much not a racist family’, but he was overruled by his father.”

In one of the published excerpts from the memoir, out in January 10, Harry recounted being physically attacked by his brother, Prince William. In the excerpt, Harry wrote about an alleged confrontation in 2019 at his home of Nottingham Cottage, near Kensington Palace, which resulted in William knocking Harry to the floor. In another extract, Harry wrote about how he drove through the Paris tunnel where his mother, the late Princess Diana, died after an accident to relive her final moments in the hope of getting some closure.

Prince Harry’s book, Spare, delves into more topics, including the challenges of growing up in the public eye, and the treatment of him and his wife, Meghan Markle, that led them to step down as working royals. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot on May 19, 2018, and have two children — Archie and Lilibet. In January 2020, the couple stepped down as working royals and later settled in California, US.