Kensington Palace has been urged to respond to claims in Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, that the friend of an unnamed member of staff took cash payments for selling stories about him and wife Meghan Markle. Quoting several paragraphs of the book, Royal expert Peter Hunt tweeted: “An extraordinary allegation that has received zero coverage. Has anyone asked Kensington Palace what action – if any – was taken by Prince William?”
The passages of the book in question refer to a meeting between Harry and his brother to discuss alleged leaks.
Harry writes that he was “braced for a lecture” which “didn’t come”.
Instead William seemed “subdued”, the Duke claims.
He adds: “I told him about one past staff member sabotaging Meg. Plotting against her.
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I told him about one current staff member, whose close friend was taking payments for leaking private stuff to the press about Meg and me.”
Harry claims his sources were “above reproach”, and included “several journalists and barristers”.
He also said he had visited Scotland Yard, presumably to make them aware of his claims.
Harry adds that Kate and William “had their suspicions”, with William pledging to “look into it”.
Express.co.uk has contacted Kensington Palace for comment, as well as the Metropolitan Police.
Spare offers an extraordinary insight into the strain placed on the relationship between the two brothers in recent years, with Harry claiming his brother physically attacked him during one row centered on Meghan, knocking him over so that he cut himself on a dog bowl.
Speaking to ITV’s Tom Bradby in an interview aired on Sunday, Harry suggested some actual royals and staff had briefed against him and his wife.
He said: “The saddest part of that is certain members of my family and the people that work for them are complicit in that conflict.
“So although I would like to have reconciliation and I would like accountability, I have managed to make peace, over this time with a lot of things that have happened.”
Specifically, he claimed the royals in question were leaking stories in order to shore up their own public images.
He added: “Those certain members have decided to get in bed with the devil, right? – to rehabilitate their image.
“If you need to do that, or you want to do that, you choose to do that – well, that is a choice. That’s up to you.
“But the moment that rehabilitation comes at the detriment of others – me, other members of my family – then that’s where I draw the line.”
(More to follow)
