One of the things I appreciated about Netflix’s Harry & Meghan is that Prince Harry really began to tell the truth about palace briefings and how certain stories are “planted” and certain narratives are palace-driven. Even if some people don’t believe that part of the equation – hilariously naive, but sure – then surely Harry’s second point holds, which is that he repeatedly asked for his family and their communications offices to simply clap back on all of the negativity, racism and sexism, only to be refused. That’s why the first clip released by 60 Minutes was Harry explaining what was happening yet again:

“Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife… You know the family motto is ‘Never Complain, Never Explain’ but it’s just a motto. And it doesn’t really hold. They will feed or have a conversation with the correspondent. And that correspondent will literally be spoon-fed information and write the story. And at the bottom of it they will say that they’ve reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment. But the whole story is Buckingham Palace commenting. So when we’re being told for the last six years we can’t put a statement out to protect you but you do it for other members of the family, there becomes a point when silence is betrayal.”

[Via Yahoo]

Those quotes should blanket any and all coverage of the Salt Island freakout. Because wouldn’t you know, some correspondents were “spoon-fed” some information about how the family really “feels” about Harry’s interviews:

The Royal Family are ‘completely exhausted’ with the ‘stream of misinformation’ from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, sources claimed last night. The comments come in the wake of Prince Harry’s publicity blitz for his new autobiography, Spare, set to be released next week, during which he has claimed his family ‘have shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile’.

A royal insider told the Mirror: ‘It all feels very repetitive. Harry’s constant sniping is rather draining and he knows full well it is highly unlikely they will engage in a tit-for-tat battle of words.’

Another source added that the duke’s claim that his family refused to reconcile with him was ‘unadulterated nonsense.’

Buckingham Palace has refused to comment on the trailers, which were filmed at a hired ranch in Montecito.

[From The Daily Mail]

I laughed at “he knows full well it is highly unlikely they will engage in a tit-for-tat battle of words.” Harry knows full well that Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace will engage in a briefing spree and smear campaign in advance of Spare’s publication. Which is the whole reason why he wrote the book and why he’s saying all of this in interviews. Harry’s like: this is what will happen. And the Windsors fall all over themselves to prove his point.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.