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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Jennifer Newton

Prince Harry's 'nasty slurs' will 'hurt' Camilla who sees him as 'sad case', says expert

Prince Harry's "petty slurs" against his stepmother the Queen Consort will "hurt" her - but she won't hold it against him, a royal expert has said.

T he Duke of Sussex branded Camilla “the villain” and “dangerous”, as he spoke of bodies being “left in the street” during her image rehabilitation.

It came during Harry's interview with US show CBS’s 60 Minutes ahead of the publication of his memoir Spare tomorrow.

It is where he launched into his fiercest criticism yet of his stepmother, who married his father King Charles in 2005.

Now royal biographer Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine has told the Mirror how Camilla might view her stepson in light of his comments.

Prince Harry alongside his stepmother Queen Consort Camilla (UK Press via Getty Images)

She explained: " Prince Harry ’s attacks on his stepmother the Queen Consort are unnecessary and gratuitously nasty.

"Camilla has never been anything but kind to Harry and took great care to keep out of his orbit.

"Inevitably she met William, but it was by accident. She was more nervous than he was and admitted she needed a strong drink afterwards.

"Camilla has never briefed the press as Harry says she did. She personally took a lot of media flack herself even after her marriage to Charles in 2005.

Harry during his interview last night on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper (CBS NEWS)

"But Harry, who never even knew of Camilla’s existence during his childhood, has decided she must be blamed.

"Guilty because she made his father happy and by doing so directed attention away from the needy Harry himself.

"Of course, she will be hurt by his petty slurs, but she won't hold it against him. Instead, she will view Harry as the sad and confused case he appears to have become."

Camilla with husband Prince Charles as well as William and Kate in the days after the Queen's death (BUCKINGHAM PALACE/AFP via Getty)

In last night's 60 Minutes interview, Harry told Anderson Cooper about Camilla: "She was the villain, she was a third person in the marriage, she needed to rehabilitate her image."

He added: "The need for her to rehabilitate her image…that made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press.

"And there was open willingness on both sides to trade information and with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”

Meanwhile in another interview today on Good Morning America, host Michael Strahan read an extract from Harry’s book critical of the Queen Consort that said: "I have complex feelings about gaining a step-parent who I thought had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar.”

Asked what Camilla had “done” at that point, Harry replied: "I have a huge amount of compassion for her, you know. Being the third person within my parents’ marriage and she had a reputation, or an image, to rehabilitate.

"Whatever conversations happened, whatever deals or trading was made right at the beginning, she was led to believe that that would be the best way of doing it."

Ingrid Seward is editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine and a royal biographer.

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