Royal author's scathing blast for 'suffocating' Harry and Meghan
The author of a bombshell book blasted by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as a “deranged conspiracy” has hit back at the estranged royals.Royal author Tom Bower blasted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s “behaviour, lack of original talent and suffocating self-importance” in an incendiary spray in British media on Thursday (Australian time).Bower’s latest investigative biography, Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, centres on the rift between Harry and Meghan and the wider royal family.Extracts from the book, which will be released on March 26, were published in Britain’s Times newspaper last weekend. It follows an earlier work by Bower, Revenge, which famously described Meghan as “Duchess Difficult”.The latest work claims the couple began feuding with the other royals shortly after their glittering 2018 wedding. They are barely on speaking terms with the family, with Harry seeing his father the King only infrequently since the so-called “Megxit” in 2020.Prince William is not believed to have spoken directly to his younger brother in some years.Bower wrote that the Prince and Princess of Wales were alarmed by Meghan’s impact on Harry and considered her a threat. He also claims the Queen told a friend that “Meghan’s brainwashed Harry”.After the Times publication, the California-based Sussexes hit back in unusually strong response. A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said Bower’s commentary had “long crossed the line from criticism into fixation”.“Those interested in facts will look elsewhere; those seeking deranged conspiracy and melodrama know exactly where to find him,” they said.But Bower escalated the feud this week, following a detailed Variety article examining their strained relationship with Netflix.The Variety report, published on Tuesday, cited “well-placed individuals with knowledge of Netflix and the Sussexes”, who claimed the couple’s partnership with the streaming giant had fallen well short of expectations.“The Variety article endorses what I described in my book, Betrayal. The Sussexes are reaching the end of the road in Hollywood,” Bower told Britain’s Daily Express.“Their behaviour, lack of original talent and suffocating self-importance has made it even more important for them to return to Britain in July, meet the King and be revalidated as royals.“That option, I believe, will be denied to them. They face an increasingly tough future. That’s the price of betraying the royal family since Megxit.”Meghan and Harry in Toronto for the 2017 Invictus Games, their first public outing.Prince Harry is due to visit Britain in July to launch his 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham.It will be the first time the competition for wounded military personnel and veterans has returned to Britain since it began in 2014. There have been multiple reports that Harry is expected to invite his father to officially open the 2027 games.Among allegations in the Variety report are that the couple “blindsided” streaming service Netflix with their explosive tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 202o.“Sources say that the company only discovered at the last minute that the Sussexes would sit with Winfrey and share intimate, headline-grabbing details of their lives,” it said.Netflix also reportedly had concerns about Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare. It was released in early January 2023, just a month after the Sussexes explosive docuseries, Harry & Meghan, dropped on Netflix.“Netflix approached the couple to discuss how a potential book deal would impact the release of the docuseries. Sources say Meghan downplayed the auction … [saying] that any publication would be far in the future, if it happened at all,” Variety wrote.A spokesperson for the Sussexes said the suggestion that Netflix was unaware of the Oprah interview was “categorically false”.“Netflix and Archewell had legal counsel involved to oversee the evolution of the deal, as is common practice for any deal changes in Hollywood,” they said.Meghan’s spokesperson also rejected as “categorically untrue” the claim about timing conflicts between the docuseries and Harry’s book.In August last year, Netflix pared back its arrangements with the couple, opting for a multiyear, first-look deal rather than any repeat of the $US100 million ($A141 million), five-year agreement struck in 2020.
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