Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare finally hit shelves yesterday, Dec. 10, and he continued his press tour promoting the book — and telling his truth. On Tuesday, the royal stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where he discussed many topics written about in the book regarding his family, his wife, and what his late mother would think of the rift between he and his brother, Prince William.
Prince Harry has made countless headlines over the last week after leaks of the memoir were published and he participated in two candid interviews over the weekend, one with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes and one with ITV journalist Tom Bradby.
Among the shocking revelations in the book includes an alleged physical altercation between Harry and Prince William that took place in Harry’s home which she shared with wife Meghan Markle. According to Harry, William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor.”
Harry wrote about the tensions between Markle and Kate Middleton (including a heated text exchange) and during his chat with Bradby, he explained how the nickname the “fab four,” referring to William, Kate, Harry and Meghan, was invented by the British press to “create competition.”
In his conversation with Colbert, Harry was asked how his mother Princess Diana would handle the situation between the feuding brothers.
Harry replied, “We wouldn’t have got to this moment. It’s impossible to say where we would be now, where those relationships would be now, but there is no way that the distance between my brother and I would be the same.”
He also added that he’s “really felt the presence” of his mother, “especially in the last couple of years.” He also recalled writing in the book that when visiting her grave with his brother, Harry felt as if she “had been with [William] for a long period of time and helped set him up with life and that he felt she was now moving over to me.”
He went into detail about why he thought he refused to accept her death in 1997, which he also told Cooper on Sunday. During his interview 60 Minutes he said, “For a long time, I just refused to accept that she was gone,” he revealed to Cooper. “Part of, you know, she would never do this to us, but also part of, maybe this is all part of a plan.”
When Cooper asked if he believed that she “disappeared for a time,” Harry replied, “For a time, and then that she would call us and that we would go and join her, yeah.”
Prince Harry said he believed that “for years,” and shared that Prince William also had “similar thoughts.”
Cooper read a part of the book where Harry wrote: “I’d often say it to myself first thing in the morning, ‘Maybe this is the day. Maybe this is the day that she’s gonna reappear.’”
Harry replied, “I had huge amounts of hope.”
