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After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's bombshell heavy interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Prince William told King Charles that the royal family needed a "clear strategy in dealing with the Sussexes, the renegade royals," according to a new biography.
During their sit-down with Winfrey in March 2021, Harry and Meghan made a number of claims against the royal family while explaining their reasoning behind stepping away from the monarchy to start a new life in California.
The biggest bombshell of the interview was the couple alleging that a member of the royal family had made racially insensitive comments about their future children which saw accusations of racism levelled at individual family members online and from media commentators.
During their conversation with Winfrey, Harry spoke of his brother and father, revealing Charles had stopped taking his calls and he believed both royals were "trapped" in the system of monarchy.
In a new biography of Charles titled Our King: Charles III: The Man and the Monarch Revealed, by veteran royal reporter Robert Jobson, it is claimed that William requested an action plan for how to handle his brother in the future.
"In the aftermath of the Oprah interview, William went to his father and told him that the Royal Family needed a clear strategy in dealing with the Sussexes, the renegade royals," Jobson writes.
"He became a key figure in the ongoing conversations between the Queen and Charles on how to counter the 'groundless' verbal attacks. Of course, Her Majesty would have the final say, but she needed Charles and William to guide her."
A key concern in the fallout of the interview for both Charles and William, Jobson claims, was Harry's "total lack of discretion."
"Neither felt they could fully trust him again and they decided not to meet him alone in future."
The brothers' relationship was a central focus of Harry's memoir, Spare, which was published in January.
The book went on to become the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time and contained a number of critical assessments of the future king and his conduct.
As well as elaborating on revelations told to Winfrey two years earlier, Harry included never before heard details, recounting at one point a physical altercation with his brother over Meghan Markle's treatment of palace staff in 2019.
Harry wrote that William "knocked" him to the floor and left him feeling "scared," before the brothers eventually split their households with Harry and Meghan moving out of Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Castle estate.
The last time the brothers were seen together in public was in September 2022, for events commemorating the death of Queen Elizabeth II. On September 10, Harry, William, Kate Middleton, and Meghan all gathered for their first joint appearance since the Sussexes left Britain two years earlier.
Together the couples viewed floral tributes at Windsor Castle and spoke with well-wishers on the Long Walk.
"William and Harry had called a truce in their bitter dispute and put on a show of unity at Windsor to view the floral tributes at the castle, after William invited his brother and Meghan to join him and Catherine there," Jobson writes of the event.
"For the cameras, at least, it was as if they had slipped straight back into being the so-called Fab Four again. Nothing could be further from the truth," he writes, citing a "close source" who said that Kate "later admitted to a senior royal that it was one of the hardest things she ever had to do, such was the ill feeling between the two couples."
Since then no significant healing of the relationships has apparently taken place, as laid bare by Harry in his recent interviews promoting his book.
William has not publicly responded to the claims made by Harry in his memoir. This is in line with King Charles' stance too who, through Buckingham Palace, refused to comment.
The brothers will once again reunite for the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla on May 6. Buckingham Palace confirmed Harry's attendance at the ceremony this week, though Meghan Markle will remain in California with the couple's two children, Prince Archie, three, and Princess Lilibet, one.
Newsweek has approached Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, and representatives of Prince Harry via email for comment.
Our King: Charles III: The Man and the Monarch Revealed by Robert Jobson is published by John Blake in the United Kingdom and is available now.
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