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By Jack Royston
Chief Royal Correspondent
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Queen Camilla's aides "almost never discussed" Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's broadsides, a royal source told Newsweek.
Harry famously described Camilla as "dangerous" in his book Spare and suggested she sacrificed him on her "PR altar."
However, during the era of Harry and Meghan's bombshells, the staff around the queen and King Charles III almost never discussed the royal rift.
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"Far more thought and hiatus is stirred up in the media around what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are or aren't doing on any given day than was ever a fixation at the Palace," a source told Newsweek. "Where it's almost never discussed."
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What Prince Harry Wrote About Camilla in 'Spare'
Harry described in Spare how he and Prince William told Charles they would welcome Camilla but asked for a promise in return: "Just please don't marry her."
And he painted her as manipulative: "Shortly after our private summits with her, she began to play the long game, a campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the Crown. (With Pa's blessing, we presumed.)
"Stories began to appear everywhere, in all the papers, about her private conversation with Willy, stories that contained pinpoint accurate details, none of which had come from Willy, of course."
Ultimate, Charles married Camilla in 2005 and Harry said he anticipated it having an impact on his relationship with his father: "Willy and I would see less of Pa, I predicted, and that left me with mixed feelings.
"I didn't relish losing a second parent, and I had complex feelings about gaining a step-parent who, I believed, had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar.
"But I saw Pa's smile and it was hard to argue with that, and harder still to deny the cause: Camilla.
"I wanted so many things, but I was surprised to discover at their wedding that one of the things I wanted most, still, was for my father to be happy.
"In a funny way I even wanted Camilla to be happy. Maybe she'd be less dangerous if she was happy?"
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek*, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.*
Do you have a question about King Charles III and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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