How fatherhood helps Prince Harry understand Princess Diana | 60 Minutes

inside the story with Anderson Cooper I'm not trying to hold just my family in an institution to account it's the British place as well this weekend 60 Minutes I interviewed Prince Harry for his upcoming book spare yeah of course one of the things that interested me about interviewing Prince Harry is and frankly reading his book is that we don't really know who he is I've discovered so much through the last two years about my own story me being born into this family The Sibling Rivalry that comes from that the relationship with the media every element of it anybody who's been interested at all in the royal family has watched Prince Harry grow up from the moment he was born public has a certain perception of all these people that they read about or they see on television and yet the reality of how that person sees themselves and sees their own life is often very different and I find that a really interesting subject when I agreed to you this interview I obviously had not read the book yet but I did not expect there to be such a focus on the early trauma in Harry's life one of the things that surprised me and interested me was how the loss of his mother when he was 12 years old completely altered the course of the rest of his life for most people who you know have lost a parent or lost a sibling at a young age that's I think once you've accepted that they're gone then you accept your life is never going to be the same ever again it changed the person who he was um and that's something I personally felt a sort of understanding of because of losing my dad when I was 10 years old and I didn't realize going into this that that the subject of grief and loss would be something that was so present in in his life for the rest of his life having been through what you've been through now do you understand your mom differently and what sounds in a deeper way what she was going through I think one thing I've realized about grief and loss is that one's relationship with somebody who's died continues and your understanding of them actually can change over time having been through what you went through with the family with your wife the Press do you understand your mother from a different angle over the years I have understood it more but yes Sony as a as a parent to two little kids I'm starting to comprehend the position that she was in as a mother single parent trying to look after two boys with this intense media harassment it wasn't online then it was very much physical she was being chased for the majority of her life when she got together with my father it got so much worse after the divorce so I've done and continue to do everything I can to make sure that that doesn't happen to my family because it certainly doesn't seem as though the British press have changed their ways you know I've made peace with losing her but I'm now very much focused on turning that pain into purpose in the book Prince Harry talks about the different roles that each of them had air and spare when did you first hear that term despair probably my earliest memory backers probably when I was a teenager you say that you were 20 when you heard the story that your father after your birth said to your mum you've given me an heir and now a spare my work is done that is what has been said do you think that's true um from the different places that I've heard it yes um it may well have been a joke um but yeah was that a term people used in front of you it wasn't no it wasn't regularly used by the family in different scenarios but there's a general understanding and a feeling that is again projected across the newspapers I don't know where William and I would be on a relationship level if the British press weren't involved but we would certainly be a hell of a lot closer than we are now how does the British press play into your relationship with William his life is very much chosen for him perhaps my life wasn't chosen for me but equally I felt like I needed to make something of my life so that I didn't end up as a spares spare you know there was an expectation for him and there was probably an expectation for me and certainly from the British press standpoint it was you're the spare we can do whatever we want with you and you're not allowed you're not allowed to defend yourself you're not allowed to kick back um especially within the family construct that we have what would your mom think about what's happened to you and your brother I think she'll be sad that it is where it is now so I believe that she would want reconciliation and I hope that's what's achievable

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 314,832

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, Prince Harry, Princess Diana

Id: ItQV-bDN61M

Length: 5min 10sec (310 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 09 2023