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King Charles shocking and disloyal book exposing royal secrets and attacking his family

(278 Posts)
GagaJo Sat 07-Jan-23 10:13:28

AKA, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

It’s a story that, for 38 years, people have not been able to get enough of. But the release of SPARE, despite its promise of “raw, unflinching honesty,” has also been met by huge criticism from the same people rushing to click on or write stories about him.

The dramatic pearl clutching would have you believe that this is, to borrow a cliche from the royal reporting dictionary, an unprecedented moment for the House of Windsor. One of the Royal Family’s very own breaking their (questionable) “never complain, never explain” mantra to share private stories that supposedly should have been taken to the grave.

But short-term memory loss will do that to you, because Harry is far from the first senior royal to open up like this. In fact, he only needed to look at the actions of his own father (and mother) for a set example.

Many forget that our current Head of State did exactly the same.

As a man who felt so misunderstood during the breakdown of his marriage and his journey to the throne, Charles turned to BBC journalist Jonathan Dimbleby in 1994 to write a once-in-a-lifetime biography on his life so he could be better understood. Sound familiar?

Just like Harry’s ghostwriter J.R Moehringer, the then Prince of Wales spent countless hours sitting down for interviews with Dimbleby, as well as providing access to his friends and aides, and opening up his private archives of 10,000 private letters, journals and diaries.

The result was a tome that offered a deeply intimate look at Charles like never before. The story of an heir's emotionally repressed childhood, his “detached” and often absent mother who was too “preoccupied” with her career to show warmth, and a capricious, judgmental father who just wanted his son to grow up to be a thicker-skinned, aggressive leader.

Writing about both books, a New York Times critic said at the time that each biography painted pictures of “hapless victims — victims, for all their wealth and glamour, of emotionally deprived childhoods, a voracious press, unfortunate circumstances and duplicitous friends”.

For Charles, the negative response from the British press and public was intense. Accused of ferociously attacking his family and disgracing the monarchy, newspaper polls and opinion pieces declared him unfit to be king and some journalists even suggested he should be stripped of his titles. (Sounds familiar again?).

But there have been no regrets about sharing his story, sources have told me in more recent years. If he didn’t do it then, he would have had to forever deal with the fact that only tabloids, newspapers and unauthorised biographers told his story in their words.

uk.news.yahoo.com/harry-book-stop-pretending-shock-following-charles-footsteps-omid-scobie-115905887.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAD6vgibNPVCxJLtCVixLM2a2XhHQvkS0V_gy4VZol9d-s4ELdm6YLBNHUI4VWh_QUepyBufgLYtl6ikcJiyw7LglwbBLqhJWbAqktjoEdprq5PMx87fqJZor3RnEHP1slXIbCgWe6qXaMXCcaJ68gTpZUhcn4r4CI6KxKWf2ZGgC

(sorry, couldn't shorten url for some reason)

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:40:01

Not at all volver he's responsible for his own behaviour but the problem is rather than taking any responsibility, he's blaming his family and his role as spare decided at his birth, for the way he's turned out.

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 11:28:47

Ah, OK. So being born into a family where his role is decided for him at birth, has moulded his character and made him what he is.

What a way to run a country.

Rosie51 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:26:00

volver

Smileless2012

Just as well he wasn't born first, eh? absolutely volversmile.

And if he had been?

He'd have been the heir not the spare and wouldn't have been consumed with self pity at his minor role, so maybe a totally different character?

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:25:53

I don't think the book would have been written and the interviews beginning with Oprah would have been given volver. He wouldn't have been 'the spare', wouldn't have had a smaller bedroom than his brother etc. etc.

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 11:25:20

🎶All in all its just another brick in the Wall🎶

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:24:22

Indeed Callistemon and as heir to the throne if KC's book didn't bring down the monarchy it's not likely that H's will either.

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 11:21:50

Smileless2012

^Just as well he wasn't born first, eh?^ absolutely volversmile.

And if he had been?

Callistemon21 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:20:09

King Charles shocking and disloyal book exposing royal secrets and attacking his family

Really, there's nothing much else to say except

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:16:25

Just as well he wasn't born first, eh? absolutely volversmile.

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 11:13:31

Smileless2012

I think it does matter if H & M aren't blameless. Maybe H wasn't good at being royal, but that's not the issue. The issue is that he's using his birth right and royal title to trash his family, to make unsubstantiated and false allegations and revealing private matters in order to make money.

That isn't just not being good at being royal, that's not being good at being a decent human being.

Absolutely.

So people that aren't good human beings (your words, not mine) are just as likely to be born into the RF as nice people are. Yet you can be Head of State forever even if you are not fitted for it at all and just happen to have the right dad.

I don't support everything he says. Some of it doesn't add up. Just as well he wasn't born first, eh?

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:13:09

I think you could be right Rosie although why anyone would think that H telling lies will hasten the demise of the Monarchy is beyond me.

Rosie51 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:09:10

I wonder if Harry will ever realise that some (many?) of those people who support him in every accusation he makes do so, not because they truly like and believe him, but because they see it as a way of hastening the demise of the Monarchy? They use him with not one jot of true concern for his or his family's welfare, he's just a pawn in their game.

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 11:07:34

I think it does matter if H & M aren't blameless. Maybe H wasn't good at being royal, but that's not the issue. The issue is that he's using his birth right and royal title to trash his family, to make unsubstantiated and false allegations and revealing private matters in order to make money.

That isn't just not being good at being royal, that's not being good at being a decent human being.

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 11:00:58

You don't agree, fair enough.

I do.

Doesn't matter if they are blameless or not. The hereditary monarchy is founded on the fact that people are fit to be head of state, or part of their family, just be being born where they are. Some are good at being "Royal", some aren't. But all the kerfuffle about somebody who wasn't, and how the rest may have behaved, just shows that they all have feet of clay.

The more that becomes obvious, the more people will ask why they are parading around in a gold coach and keeping their tax affairs secret.

Clock's ticking.

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 10:50:33

But what it there to examine about racism that's no longer being alleged by Harry? He has now said that his family aren't racist.

I don't think that the "RF is meant to be an idealised reflection of the British people themselves", some may regard it in that way of course.

I don't agree regarding H & M's marriage that "The failure of that project is absolutely catastrophic for the royal family" as I don't agree that H & M are blameless, far from it.

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 09:59:45

Mayer notes that the alleged racism, bullying and image manipulation inside the institution are not being examined. Left alone, they have the power to dissolve faith in the idea of a hereditary head of state.

The whole family is meant to be an idealised reflection of the British people themselves and Harry’s marriage to Meghan made the job much easier,” she said. “The failure of that project is absolutely catastrophic for the royal family.”

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 09:58:24

may say or do

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 09:57:43

She says that among other things that there's anger about racism in the RF, but in H's itv interview he said his family isn't racist and the query before Archie was born wasn't racist, it was misguided.

So no, I don't think for one moment that H's book or anything else he may or do will greatly impact on the monarchy. The only damage he appears to be doing, is it to himself.

LondonMzFitz Wed 11-Jan-23 09:56:18

lemsip

Prince Harryhas furiously slammed down accusations that he 'boasted' about killing 25 Taliban fighters in his explosive memoir Spare - while accusing his critics of 'spinning' his words and spouting 'lies' about the revelation, which he says have put his family 'in danger'.

we heard him say the words in the interview, how can they be denied.

This 2013 revelation? Someone posted this on Twitter yesterday, and I realised this new news is very much old news.

And if Charles's interview and book from 1994 was released in times of internet and forums and social media platforms I would imagine he'd have created the same furore as Harry's book has - indeed, more so, as first in line to the Throne.

(The internet became available in late 1993).

And I find it puzzling / astonishing / irritating that people who claim they won't read it and "yawn" at another thread still feel the need to elbow in and comment, over and over again on each thread, to tell us - on a discussion forum - they won't read it and are bored. It's a discussion forum, and if the aim is to silence people then - why?

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 09:46:59

Who do you mean nanna8?

Surely not me???

nanna8 Wed 11-Jan-23 09:42:22

Some of you lot should be locked up for treason. Good job you weren’t living in the 16 th century.

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 09:38:13

Didn't read the article, did you? 🤣

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 09:36:03

grin I don't think so volver. It will take a lot more than H's angry and bitter vitriol to bring down the monarchy, especially when so much of what's been said during and since the Oprah interview is at best unsubstantiated and at worse, blatant lies.

volver Wed 11-Jan-23 09:32:33

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/08/harrys-book-end-of-monarchy-royal-biographer

Can't wait...

Smileless2012 Wed 11-Jan-23 09:29:09

I think their lies and unsubstantiated claims fuel the fire of those who want to see an end to the monarchy tickingbird but doubt they'll change the opinions of those in favour.