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Prince Harry's unflattering descriptions of palace aides in his hit memoir Spare could undermine his denials of bullying allegations lodged by former staff, a new episode of Newsweek's The Royal Report podcast has heard.
Harry's book was released on Tuesday to record-breaking sales and contains a litany of familiar complaints about the media and press intrusion into his life and that of Meghan Markle.
It also contains a number of deeply intimate revelations about the royal's life and those of his close family members.
As well as detailing private conversations and text messages that may prove damaging to the royal family (including an account of a physical attack by Prince William in 2019), Harry also takes aim at palace aides and staff members he feels wronged him over the years.
Discussing these attacks on behind-the-scenes courtiers, chief royal correspondent Jack Royston questioned whether it was wise for the prince to be so "scathing," considering his denials of allegations published in 2021 by staff working for the Sussexes that there was a bullying culture within their household.
In a discussion with royal commentator Kristen Meinzer, he said: "On the subject of staff he goes into some of what happened at Kensington Palace and the relationship between Harry and Meghan and their staff in a way that's quite interesting."
"He obviously says that Meghan is not a bully and he says that all of the problems at Kensington Palace were blamed by William on Meghan," he continued.
"What's quite interesting is that he does outline this picture of an office where the staff were in this, he calls it a poisonous environment, and he says there were people kind of bent over desks weeping and he said that the atmosphere was so kind of febrile that constructive criticism wasn't possible."
On the way Harry describes particular individuals within the royal households, Royston observed: "He kind of had nicknames for them, calling them the bee, the wasp, the fly [...] Some of it's quite personal, and I have to say I did wonder whether that was actually a good idea for Harry to go there if he's in the process of denying a bullying allegation [but] is also like saying some really quite personal and scathing things including about people's physical appearances."
Three courtiers who come under the most scrutiny are described by Harry as "middle-aged white men who'd managed to consolidate power through a series of bold Machiavellian maneuvers."
"They had normal names, exceedingly British names, but they sort more easily into zoological categories. The Bee. The Fly. And the Wasp."
The Bee, he wrote was "oval-faced and fuzzy and tended to glide around with great equanimity and poise, as if he was a boon to all living things."
The Wasp was "lanky, charming, arrogant," as well as being "weedy" and "self-effacing."
While the Fly was so named because he "spent much of his career adjacent to, and indeed drawn to, s***."
"There were a couple of things that Harry said in his book which honestly could have come out of a Piers Morgan column," Royston observed.
These three courtiers are not the only staffers to be targeted by Harry in his memoir. Queen Elizabeth II's closest aide and friend, Angela Kelly, comes under fire. The prince describes Kelly, who he is reported to have had a falling out with over the tiara Meghan wore on her wedding day, as a "troublemaker" and "obstructive."
In one chapter, he accuses Kelly of being the source of palace leaks, writing: "Among the many services she performed for Granny, she was said to be skilled at planting stories."
So far, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have adopted a "no comment" strategy about Spare and the claims made within it.
In 2021 when the bullying allegations were made against Meghan by former staff members, Buckingham Palace announced that a review would take place. In 2022 it was announced that the review had been completed but that the results would not be published.
In Spare, Harry addresses the allegations, subsequently writing that he and Meghan compiled a dossier in defense of their actions which was sent to the palace.
The claims, he said, were "so shocking, so egregious, that even after Meg and I
demolished their lie with a twenty-five-page, evidence-filled report to Human
Resources, I was going to have trouble simply shrugging that one off."
At the time of the allegations, representatives for the Sussexes said that it was part of a "calculated smear campaign," against the duchess.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more