Prince Harry Throws More Accusations at Prince William Than Ever Before

Prince Harry put his shared bond with Prince William over Princess Diana to one side as he leveled significant allegations against his brother in his Netflix documentary.

The new Prince of Wales came off lightly during Harry and Meghan Markle's Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2021 but bore the brunt of fresh allegations in Part II of Harry & Meghan, released on December 15.

Among the biggest bombshells were Harry's account of William shouting during the now famous "Sandringham Summit"—the royal family negotiations during which Harry and Meghan's royal exit was hammered out in January 2020.

That was not all though. Meghan and the couple's lawyer Jenny Afia accused William of authorizing aide Jason Knauf to hand over her private emails and text messages to the Court of Appeal, exposing embarrassing revelations. Knauf explicitly denied the allegation to the documentary makers.

The saga bounced Meghan into an on-the-record apology in a November 2021 witness statement for misleading the court, including about her co-operation with the explosive biography Finding Freedom.

Harry and William's Relationship

What is particularly striking is the fact that Oprah asked Harry about his relationship with his brother and was rebuffed.

The Duke replied: "I've said before, I love William to bits. He's my brother. We've been through hell together. I mean, we have a shared experience. But we, you know, we're on different paths."

Whatever motivated Harry to turn down the chance to unpack the difficulties in his relationship with his brother in the Oprah interview, something has clearly changed between the CBS tell-all and their Netflix show.

What remains less clear though, is whether the allegations will damage William or whether the public will side with the future king.

Harry's 'Terrifying' Encounter with Shouting William

Harry told the documentary of a "terrifying" encounter in the days after the Sussexes plan to quit Britain for a new life in North America became public knowledge.

The move was first leaked on the front page of The Sun before Harry and Meghan confirmed their plans by posting a new website for their now defunct charity Sussex Royal.

Harry then went into crisis talks with his family, including Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Prince William, as well as senior palace staff, on the queen's estate at Sandringham in eastern England.

"I went in with the same proposal that we'd already made publicly but once I got there I was given five options," the duke said. "One being all-in, no change. Five being all out. I chose option three in the meeting. Half in, half out. Have our own jobs but also work in support of the queen. But it became very clear, very quickly, that goal was not up for discussion or debate."

He added: "It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren't true and my grandmother, you know, quietly sit there and sort of take it all in."

Prince William Is 'Now on the Institution's Side'

Harry's account of the rift with his brother cut directly to the account Princess Diana gave of her own experience of royal life.

The Duke of Sussex accused William of siding with "the institution," echoing their mother's own comments about her difficult experiences with palace staff.

He said: "I mean, the saddest part of it was the wedge created between myself and my brother so that he's now on the institution's side.

"And part of that I get, I understand. That's his inheritance. So, to some extent it's already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability and the continuation of this institution."

Harry Accuses Palace of Lying Over Bullying Statement

Harry took a swipe at the palace's response to a story published in 2020 suggesting the Sussexes were leaving the royal family because William had bullied them out.

He stopped short of saying the story was true but accused the palace of lying when they "squashed" it.

Harry said: "That day a story came out, saying that part of the reason why Meghan and I were leaving was because William had bullied us out and once I got in the car after the meeting, I was a told about a joint-statement that had been put out in my name and my brother's name squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family."

"I couldn't believe it," he continued. "No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. And I rang M [Meghan] and I told her, and she burst into floods of tears. Because within four hours, they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us."

William and Harry's Office Disintegrated

Any implicit connection between his criticisms of his brother and their mother's experience was made more explicit towards the end of the fourth episode of the series, which was the first installment of Part II.

The brother's shared the same office until this arrangement came to an end in 2019.

Harry said: "It's a dirty game. You know, there's leaking, but there's also planting of stories.

"So if the comms team want to be able to remove a negative story about their principle, they will try and give you something about someone else's principle. So the offices end up working against each other.

"It's kind of this weird understanding or acceptance of what happens. You can always say, 'I didn't know about this,' or 'don't be ridiculous, this would never happen, are you suggesting that I condone this?'

"No, but what I am asking is, have you done anything to stop it? And the answer is 'no.' William and I both saw what happened in our dad's office and we made an agreement that we would never let that happen to our office."

"I would far rather get destroyed in the press than play along with this game or this business of trading. And to see my brother's office copy the very same thing that we promised the two of us would never ever do, that was heart-breaking," he said.

The documentary included clips of Princess Diana describing Charles' jealousy at her own popularity.

William Accused of Authorizing Private Message Dump

Harry can be heard saying "yeah," in the background as Meghan implicates William in the release of her private emails and text messages to a Court of Appeal case against The Mail on Sunday.

The footage was shot after the couple first discovered former Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf had handed over the documents.

Knauf previously worked for Harry, Meghan, William and Kate Middleton when all four were based in the same private office but after quitting continued to work for William and Kate through their charity, The Royal Foundation.

In the third episode, Meghan says: "It's your brother. I'm not going to say anything about your brother, but it's so obvious."

Mandana Dayani, former president of their Archewell foundation, added: "That's what I keep saying, why are we talking about him as her former aide and not as the person who works for your brother?"

Harry replies: "That's why I'm now living in a different country. Because all the comms teams basically, like, try to outdo each other, but this is the contract. The symbiotic relationship between the two institutions working the best that they can."

Will Harry's Allegations Damage William?

U.K.-based PR expert Edward Coram James, chief executive of Go Up, told Newsweek Prince Harry's accusations may lose their impact with viewers because he and Meghan did not accept their own faults.

"When you are explaining your way out of a crisis you have to take some responsibility for it," he told Newsweek. "There has to be a sense of introspection and a sense of 'well, I could have done this better.' Because that then creates humility, it creates humanity, it creates relatability.

"It's those three things that allow the public to be guided by you, where you say 'maybe I got these things wrong but I've also been the victim here, here and here'.

"If you refuse to take any accountability whatsoever where the whole thing is this big orchestrated campaign against you where you are the single victim and in no way responsible for any of the chaos, it makes it seem a little bit conspiratorial and a little bit two dimensional.

"It shows a lack of humility and a lack of introspection and that makes it very difficult to get the public to empathize with you."

Jack Royston is Chief Royal Correspondent at Newsweek based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.