PRINCE Charles’ biographer has blasted Harry and Meghan for being “vicious, cruel and horribly self-serving”.
Jonathan Dimbleby said the couple did “great damage” to the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family during their tell-all chat with Oprah Winfrey.
Speaking at the Buxton International Festival in Derbyshire this week, the veteran broadcaster, 76, said, as reported by the Daily Mail: “I think that the interview was a very great shame.
“I think it did great damage of a kind that was undeserved to the royal household and specifically to the Queen and her family.”
The bombshell broadcast saw Harry say there was “a lot of hurt” between him and his father and that Charles had stopped taking his calls.
He also alleged he was cut off financially after Megxit.
Dimbleby, whose father Richard was the first journalist to do a televised interview with a royal in a 1961 Panorama programme with Prince Philip, claimed it was wrong to speak about the matters publicly.
He said: “Harry’s remarks about his father, I simply fail to understand.
“I think there are certain things you should say and do in private.
“I believe a lot of the insinuations he made were not consistent with fact.”
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He went on to describe the interview, in which Meghan and Harry also accused the royals of racism and ignoring the suicidal duchess’ cries for help, as “vicious, cruel and horribly self-serving”.
And he claimed Harry is “being led by the nose a bit by his wife”.
Dimbleby added that he was “very disappointed” by the Duke of Sussex’s behaviour, especially after meeting him “when he was young”.
At that stage he was a “charming, very nice” man “who had served very well in the armed forces”, he said.
‘HORRIBLY SELF-SERVING’
The presenter and author interviewed Charles on TV in 1994 and wrote Prince of Wales: A Biography in the same year.
During the televised chat, Charles admitted his affair with Camilla while still married to Princess Diana.
The landmark interview sent ripples through the royal family, with fears Charles’ admission could cost him the throne.
Philip was said to be particularly outraged with his son.
Royal author Penny Junor wrote in her book, The Firm, The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor: “The Duke of Edinburgh was incensed, the rest of the family flabbergasted, the Queen’s advisers and courtiers stunned, the prince’s friends appalled.”
Harry has followed in his father’s footsteps with his Oprah interview, mental health documentary and celebrity podcast interview.
And his latest announcement, that he has been secretly writing a memoir, is threatening to widen the family rift and put the royal celebration in turmoil.
Harry has vowed to examine the “highs and lows” of his extraordinary life in his autobiography – out during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next year.
The Palace has allegedly been warned they “should be afraid” of what’s to come from it.
The duke is working with Pulitzer Prize-winner J R Moehringer, who has written memoirs for tennis legend Andre Agassi and Nike co-founder Phil Knight.
He signed with publisher Penguin Random House and will be donating any fee to charity after making tens of millions of dollars with Netflix and Spotify.
The currently untitled book is set for release in 2022 – as Her Majesty celebrates 70 years of service.
