The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have launched a vehement counterattack against author Tom Bower following the publication of extracts from his latest book on the British royal family. In an unusually forceful statement released Saturday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle characterized Bower’s writing as “deranged conspiracy and melodrama” that crosses into unhealthy fixation.
The controversy stems from excerpts published in The Times of London on Friday, which included sensational claims about royal dynamics. Among the most incendiary allegations was an assertion that Queen Camilla had privately told a friend that Meghan had “brainwashed” Prince Harry. The book further suggested that Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, perceived Meghan as a “threat rather than an ally” during the period leading to the Sussexes’ departure from royal duties and relocation to the United States.
In their response, the Sussexes highlighted Bower’s previous public statement that “the monarchy in fact depends on actually obliterating the Sussexes from our state of life,” which they presented as evidence of his biased approach. The statement accused Bower of building his career on “constructing ever more elaborate theories about people he does not know and has never met,” explicitly directing truth-seeking readers to look elsewhere for factual information.
The extracts also contained criticism spanning multiple aspects of the couple’s post-royal life, including their financial arrangements, philanthropic initiatives, and even Harry’s Invictus Games foundation for wounded military veterans. This represents Bower’s second literary examination of the Sussexes, following his 2022 publication “Revenge: Meghan, Harry, And the War Between the Windsors.” The ongoing public feud underscores the deepening rift between the Sussexes and certain media portrayals of their relationship with the institution they left behind.