Prince Harry gave an exclusive interview to Good Morning America’s Will Reeve (son of Christopher Reeve). GMA followed the Sussexes around Canada in their first two days in Vancouver and Whistler, all part of the “One Year To Go” events around the Invictus Games. In the first clip from the interview, Harry was asked about his father, King Charles, and his dad’s cancer diagnosis. Harry kept it very simple, especially when asked about his sudden trip to London last week: “Um, look, I love my family. The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that.” Harry also said, after a leading question, that he was “sure” that his dad’s cancer could have a reunifying effect on the family: “Throughout all these families I see it on a day-to-day basis – the strength of the family unit coming together. Any illness, any sickness, brings families together.” As you can imagine, Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast immediately (within minutes!) got friends-of-the-Windsors to throw a tantrum about this:

Friends of the royals reacted with fury today after Prince Harry used an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America to discuss his father King Charles’ cancer diagnosis—and agreed with an interviewer’s suggestion that it could have a “reunifying” effect on the family. In comments bound to infuriate the palace, Harry, when asked about his recent dash to Britain to see his father, said: “Um, look, I love my family. The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that.”

Harry was being interviewed by GMA presenter Will Reeve, son of the Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who went on to make an apparent reference to his late father’s paralysis, saying: “I’ve also found in my own life that sort of an illness in the family can have a galvanising or a sort of reunifying effect for a family. Is that possible in this case?”

In a clip aired Friday morning, Harry replied: “Absolutely. Yeah, I’m sure. Throughout all these families I see it on a day-to-day basis, again, the strength of the family unit coming together. I think any illness, any sickness brings families together.”

One friend of Charles and Camilla, when told of Harry’s comments by The Daily Beast, responded: “It seems Harry has taken it on himself to use the diagnosis to publicise his own agenda. If it wasn’t so sickening it would be funny. What really would have helped the family come together would have been if Harry had said he wouldn’t be taking questions about his father.”

Another friend of the family said: “It’s hard to believe that Harry can keep finding ways to make things worse. He just needs to pipe down.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Just so we’re clear, Harry did not say anything that the royals themselves weren’t briefing to the British media last week. If anything, Harry kept it more general: lots of families come together when someone has cancer, I love my family, I’m grateful I got a chance to visit my father. Imagine being “sickened” by that, or telling a son to “pipe down” when he says “I love my family.” Unhinged.

Here’s the GMA interview – Harry said “that stays between me and him” when asked about his outlook on his father’s health. He also says he has other planned trips to the UK coming up, so he’s definitely going to see his father again. He says Archie and Lilibet are really funny and keep him and Meg “grounded.” On his life in America, he says “I love every single day.” Whether he feels American, he says: “Aaaaah, do I feel American? No, I don’t know how I feel.” Oh, he’s asked if he’s considered becoming an American citizen and he says yes, he has considered it and he really wanted to get out of that conversation. Methinks he’s already in the middle of his years-long naturalization process.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.