Following the release of Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir, Spare, this past January, royal expert Dr. Tessa Dunlop said on the “To Di for Daily” podcast that his father, King Charles, should have undertaken a public “act of compassion” towards his younger son after the book’s publication.
Heretofore, the royal family hasn’t commented on Spare, but, according to The Daily Express, Dunlop said she would have preferred to have seen a more out front act of forgiveness towards the Duke of Sussex. She continued that the tell-all was not meant to “bring down his dear Papa,” but rather that Harry comes across as sympathetic—a trait Dunlop wishes to be shown publicly again by the Firm.
“I feel Charles, I kind of know this actually—he’s a kind man,” Dunlop said. “We all have failings. Even Harry in his book doesn’t really ever bring down his dear Papa.” Instead, although Harry does portray Charles as an “inattentive father,” he is also a father that doesn’t “undercut his son” but instead “shows sympathy,” Dunlop said, adding “I want him to do his best again.”
When asked by the podcast’s host Kinsey Schofield whether the infamous “never complain, never explain” mentality was the right way to handle the Spare situation, Dunlop said she would have preferred to see the king and Prince William extend an olive branch publicly. With the “difficulty” of being born into the “nonsense” of the royal family, she said, Dunlop would have liked to have seen “an act of compassion” extended towards Harry from senior working royals in the public arena.
“I felt that [Charles, William, and Princess Catherine] could have offered the hand of reconciliation and, really, forgiveness, which is required on their part because he’s been a bit public and underhand by Harry to say the least,” Dunlop said. “I would have liked to have seen that done more publicly, for me personally. In a country as entrenched in its own history as much as ours, it is very difficult to take on an institution…particularly if it’s one your own family belong to.”
Dunlop said of Spare “I still feel conflicted. I feel that he [Harry] did something quite brave. He did it in a slightly foolish way, and I want Charles and William to recognize their larger, more important, better-funded positions and just extend that hand over the Atlantic like Jesus on water.”
