Prince Harry ‘invading own privacy’ by ‘criticising’ Charles and Queen, expert claims

Prince Harry’s apparent criticism of his father Prince Charles on TV and in podcasts seems to go against his own desires for privacy, a royal expert has suggested.

The Duke of Sussex has repeatedly hit out at the way he was brought up in the Royal Family and likened it to being in a zoo with the media focus and lack of privacy.

He has spoken out in a podcast with Dax Shepard and again in new series The Me You Can’t See about his childhood and especially how his mother Diana was pursued by the media.

Harry said that he didn’t receive the fatherly support he needed from Charles and it was a recurring theme in the Royal Family. He even claimed that he had left the UK for California to “break the cycle of genetic pain and suffering’ in his family.

Speaking on The Royal Rota, ITV’s royal correspondent Chris Ship said: “Again we’ve got him saying in the public domain and choosing to say that his father had let him down effectively.

Lizzie Robinson said how Harry had spoken publicly to Shepard about the same topic only a week or so before.

“This follows that podcast, the Armchair Expert he did with Dax Shepard where he is talking about needing to break the cycle of genetic pain and he said that he had experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or parents suffered,” she said.

Mr Ship felt that this open criticism by Harry went against his calls for privacy.

“He was criticising his father’s parenting and also really the Queen’s parenting of Prince Charles as well,” he said.

“Which does leave him open to the charge that he is invading his own privacy now because he is talking about family relationships and failings of his own parents in the public domain when he doesn’t have to do that.”

He added that any therapy didn’t need to be done publicly, saying: “He could do this privately with a therapist.”

Harry and Meghan have often criticised the British press while they were in the Royal Family and it is widely believed they stepped back as senior royals partly to gain more privacy.

Harry had told Shepard on the Armchair Expert: “I don’t think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly when it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on, basically.

“It’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on.”