Anderson Cooper says Buckingham Palace issued ‘demand’ ahead of Prince Harry ‘60 Minutes’ talk
“60 Minutes” correspondent Anderson Cooper claimed Buckingham Palace demanded to see his blockbuster sit-down with Prince Harry before the interview aired Sunday.
Cooper spoke with the Duke of Sussex ahead of the release of Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” about the death of Princess Diana, his rift with his brother, Prince William, and anger inside the royal family aimed at his wife, Meghan Markle.
At the end of the candid, half-hour interview, Cooper confirmed that “60 Minutes” reached out to the palace for comment.
“Its representatives demanded that before considering responding, ’60 Minutes’ provide them with our report prior to airing it tonight,” Cooper said.
He added that the CBS-owned program denied the palace the report before it aired — a standard practice among reputable journalistic platforms.
“It’s something we never do,” Cooper concluded.
Lawyers for the royals tried to pull the same stunt Monday after Harry was interviewed on “Good Morning America” by Michael Strahan.
“GMA” also refused.
“We received a response from the law firm representing Buckingham Palace this morning, while we were on the air, saying that the Palace needed to ‘consider exactly what is said in the interview, in the context in which it appears’ and asked that we supply them immediately with a copy of the entire interview, which we do not do as a news organisation, as a matter of our policy,” the morning show said in a statement.
Cooper’s discussion with Prince Harry shed light on his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997, as well as his contentious relationship with his brother.
Harry, 38, was 12 at the time of his mother’s death when the car she was traveling in crashed in a tunnel in Paris. He explained how for years he was in disbelief that she had died, and that it was not until he was 20 that he viewed some of the images from the crash.
Cooper asked him why he wanted to see the photos, and the prince said it was for “proof.”
Harry also painted a picture of a massive sibling rivalry with his older brother, William, which boiled over when the younger prince married Markle.
He detailed a 2019 incident in which Prince William, 40, “snapped” during an argument, in which he was verbally “coming for [Markle],” who wasn’t there at the time of the fight.
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“And his frustrations were growing and growing and growing,” Harry recalled. “He was shouting at me. I was shouting back at him. … And he snapped. And he pushed me to the floor.”
Harry said he landed on a dog bowl during the “nasty experience,” which broke and cut his back, and noted that his brother apologized following the incident and asked him not to tell Markle. But later, Markle noticed the wound.
“It wasn’t pleasant at all,” Harry said of the 2019 argument.
“Spare” hits stores Tuesday.
