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While Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, might consider their Australian tour a success, biographer Tom Bower claims it’s taken them one step closer to being stripped of their royal titles.
In his explosive new book Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, he says the Sussexes’ drive to make money from their royal relations will be their downfall.
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have been highly critical of the book, saying Bower has “made a career out of constructing ever more elaborate theories about people he does not know and has never met. Those interested in facts will look elsewhere; those seeking deranged conspiracy and melodrama know exactly where to find him”.
After coming under fire from the royal duo, here Tom Bower chats exclusively with Woman’s Day about the fallout from the Duke and Duchess’ tour, and predicts that it’ll be William, rather than King Charles, who will make the huge move to change things.
Harry and Meghan dubbed your new book a, “deranged conspiracy”. What do you make of that?
“They don’t like criticism; the Sussexes like to control the narrative. That is the problem with them – unlike other members of the Royal Family, they are hypersensitive about people criticising their conduct and I am a leading critic. It just makes the point about them being totally unsuitable.
Do you think their Australian tour was a success?
No. It was a desperate bid to commercialise, which is going to rebound on them. I think they made some money out of the tour, but the long-term consequences are very bad, because the King and Prince William will realize that they can have absolutely nothing to do with them if they dare come to England in July, because they use every opportunity to exploit their royal status to earn money. What it’s done is taken them one step closer to being stripped of their titles.
Do you think William really would strip Harry and Meghan of their titles?
Yes, when William’s king, I think he will strip them of their titles, because it’s hugely damaging to the Royal Family. It might look spiteful, but the majority of Britons would support it. They’re sick to death of seeing Harry and Meghan exploit their royal titles.
Would that mean removing the titles from Archie and Lilibet too?
Yes, they should be taken away as well. God knows what they could do. Charles should never have given them titles. He was weak to concede it and he made a mistake. It was quite clear the whole thing was to monetise the Royal Family, and they wanted the children to be on the same level as Kate and William’s children. That’s Meghan’s obsession – that Archie should be the same as George.
Is the Palace concerned by their quasi-royal tour?
If they’re not concerned, they should be, because it’s hugely damaging to the Royal Family. I can’t imagine the King is going to help Harry promote his Invictus Games, when he comes to the UK in July, because it will damage the Royal Family enormously. I don’t think Charles will even meet Harry in July, because it’s far too dangerous. But who knows what can happen between now and then. Meghan would just be commercialising herself and selling all her clothes and validating herself as a member of the family and that would be, in my view, catastrophic. I can’t believe they would be that foolish to fuel more embarrassment for the Royal Family.
Is there any hope of reconciliation?
Well, there must be hope, but it’s not going to be done on Harry’s terms. The Australia trip shows how difficult reconciliation will be.
What do you think about Meghan selling the clothes she wore on tour, on the One Off platform?
She is an influencer – that’s what she did with the Tig and that’s why she was annoyed when the Palace closed it down. It’s quite crude and quite blatant. But the truth is, it does sell the clothes. She researches the outfits, makes sure they are available and collaborates with the designers and she does the same for make-up. She did exactly the same on the so-called royal tours of Nigeria and Colombia. On those trips, she changed her outfit three or four times a day and you could buy the items [from Instagram].
Do you think Harry and Meghan’s career is sustainable?
No and that’s what makes them so desperate. Unlike with someone like Gwyneth Paltrow, there is nothing to Meghan other than her royal marriage and that was the problem with her series – she doesn’t have a mystery, a magic, which attracts huge audiences and therefore there are very few people who want to identify with her. And Harry is just a sad-case, he just regurgitates his mental-health problems the whole time.
Will Meghan write a book?
Of course she will write a book in the end. She’ll have astonishing conversations with the Queen and God knows who else, just like Harry did in Spare. It was filled with mistakes and errors and nasty comments, but it was what sells and she’ll do the same.
Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, by Tom Bower, on sale now
