Prince Harry claims he was 'probably bigoted' before dating Meghan Markle
Prince Harry told CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Anderson Cooper he was "probably bigoted" before he began his relationship with Meghan Markel and saw the light.
Prince Harry's memoir, "Spare," details his life growing up behind palace gates, and how he left the monarchy after dealing with an abundance of issues from royals, family members and the British press.
He's continued to defend his decision to write the tome, and recently accused his family of being "complicit" in his wife Meghan Markle's "pain and suffering" before they officially left royal duties.
The Duke of Sussex chatted with Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes" about the autobiography, which is set to be released on Jan. 10.
Here are five of the biggest revelations from Harry's interview:
PRINCE HARRY ACCUSES ROYAL FAMILY OF BEING ‘COMPLICIT’ IN MEGHAN'S PAIN' AND SUFFERING'
Prince Harry talked about his drug usage, seeing Princess Diana's crash photos and his stepmother's status in "60 Minutes" interview. (CBS Photo Archive)
Harry asked for proof that Princess Diana died
When he was 20 years old, eight years after her death, Prince Harry requested the police report from his mother's fatal collision.
Princess Diana was 36 years old when she died on Aug. 31, 1997, following a car collision in Paris, France. Diana, along with her boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, were killed while being pursued by photographers in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel.
She was known as "The People's Princess" despite her disdain for the press and life in the spotlight, and divorced Charles in 1996, with paparazzi ultimately chasing her to death.
"The files contained photographs of the crash scene. Why did you want to see it?," Cooper asked.
Kensington Palace did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
"Mainly proof," Harry said. "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."
RONALD REAGAN'S DAUGHTER PATTI DAVIS WARNS PRINCE HARRY AHEAD OF BOOK RELEASE: ‘BE QUIET’
Princess Diana and Prince Harry attended a royal ceremony together in 1995. (Reuters)
Charles claimed in his own 1994 biography that he was forced into the marriage with Princess Diana (seen in 1991) by his late father, Prince Philip. (Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive)
Anderson added, "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.’ That's what you saw in the pictures?"
"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."
Harry was advised by a private secretary to not continue looking at the rest of the images.
He added, "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 sought out experimental therapeutic treatments to suppress "a lot of anger"
Prince Harry said it was "obvious" even as a child that the British press played a part in his mother's misery, and he had "a lot of anger" built up through the years that he "never expressed to anybody."
At one point, he "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 admitted to smoking marijuana and using cocaine after feeling "hopeless and lost" in his 20s.
Prince Harry's memoir 'Spare' will be available on Jan. 10. (Penguin Random House)
"There was this weight on my chest that I felt for so many years that I was never able to cry," he said. "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."
"Of your mom," Anderson said, to which Prince Harry agreed but admitted he still couldn't cry over Princess Diana's death.
"You write in the book about psychedelics, Ayahuasca, psilocybin, mushrooms," Anderson said.
"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," Prince Harry admitted.
"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."
Queen Consort Camilla was "the villain"
When Camilla Parker Bowles married then-Prince Charles in 2005, they had already been romantically connected for decades. Princess Diana, who divorced Charles in 1995, had famously referred to Camilla as the third person in her marriage, and Harry said the term stayed with him.
"She was the villain. She was the third person in their marriage," Harry said. "She needed to rehabilitate her image."
"You and your brother both directly asked your dad not to marry Camilla?" Anderson asked.
Clarence House family photo included royal family members (Chris Jackson)
Prince Harry claimed Camilla was "the villain" and used him for "P.R." (James Vellacott)
"Yes," Prince Harry said, to which Anderson asked, "Why?"
"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," he said. "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.'"
Cooper said, "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?"
When Harry expressed that her "need to rehabilitate her image" was worrisome, Anderson wondered why.
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"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," Harry said. "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."
He wrote that Camilla "sacrificed me on her personal P.R. altar."
"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," Harry penned.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were married on May 19, 2018. (Jeff J Mitchell)
He had a physical altercation with William
Harry noted that from the very beginning of his relationship with Meghan Markle, his family was just as skeptical about the American actress as was the British press.
"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," he said.
After Harry tried to set the tone and released a statement condemning tabloid coverage of their relationship, William grew furious with his brother. When Meghan and Harry were given the Duke and Duchess of Sussex title, everything boiled over.
"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," Harry said. "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."
Harry recalled cutting his back when he "landed on the dog bowl." He said that William apologized but also asked him not to tell Meghan.
"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," he remembered. "I was like, ‘Oh s---.’ Well, ‘cause I’d never, I hadn’t seen it."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle posed for their official wedding portrait in Windsor Castle. (Kensington Palace)
Prince Harry alleged in his that his older brother attacked. (Aaron Chown)
Prince Harry doesn't speak to his father or brother
When asked if there is any relationship between Prince Harry and his brother, he admitted, "Uh, currently, no. But I look forward to – I look forward to us being able to find peace. I want … "
Harry also said it's been "a while" since they've spoken.
Cooper then asked if he speaks with his father, King Charles III.
"We aren't – we haven't spoken for quite a while. Um, no, not recently," Harry said.
"Can you see a day when you would return as a full-time member of the royal family?" Cooper asked.
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"No. I can't see that happening," Harry said.
He remembered when his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in September, and said his family didn't include him in travel arrangements to Balmoral Castle in Scotland despite Harry being in London for a charity event.
"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 family members that live within the Windsor and Ascot area were jumping on a plane together," Harry said. "A plane with 12, 14, maybe 16 seats."
"You were not invited on that plane?" Cooper asked.
"I was not invited," Harry said.
Regardless of the "full scale rupture," he believes there can be healing.
"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 the specifics or anything," Harry said. "There needs to be a constructive conversation, one that can happen in private that doesn't get leaked."
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