The story of the feud between Prince Harry and Prince William

Aside from reports of the royals being hugged over Harry’s book, Spare was officially greeted with a wall of silence from the palace.

But Harry insisted in several interviews that instead of trying to sever his relationship with his family, he was trying to clear any cobwebs and air out the dirty laundry so maybe they could really see what he’d been through all those years. As he described, his fear and unaddressed trauma stretched back decades, long before Meghan came into the picture.

“I’m not sure how honesty burns bridges,” he told ITV’s Bradby in an interview on January 8. “You know, silence only allows the abuser to abuse. Correct? So I don’t know how silence can ever make things better.”

And “though I would like reconciliation,” he continued, “I would like accountability. I’ve managed to make peace with a lot of things that have happened during this time. But that doesn’t mean I’m just going to let it go.”

Still, Harry noted, he wanted to be able and to be forgiven. “I would like to get my father back,” he said. “I’d like my brother back. I don’t recognize them right now, any more than they probably don’t recognize me.”

He loved his family and always would, he stressed. “None of what I have done in this book or otherwise,” he said, “has ever been anything [with] any intent to harm or injure them.”