Prince Harry has revealed the moment when he was left ‘heartbroken’ and ‘horrified’ after a seven-page newspaper article accused him of having issues with substance abuse

Prince Harru and Prince William are no longer as close as they were (
Image: Getty Images)

Prince Harry revealed a difficult family moment when he claimed “lies” were printed about him that made his brother Prince William “even angrier” than he was.

The Duke of Sussex wrote about the heart-wrenching moment when his brother stood by him during a difficult time that left him struggling emotionally and seeking support from his elder sibling. He recounted how a seven-page newspaper article accusing him of substance abuse issues had left him shattered.

In his memoir titled ‘Spare’, Harry detailed the incident from January 2002 when he was splashed across the front page under the headline ‘Harry’s Drugs Shame’. He vehemently labelled the article as “lies”, stating that it not only portrayed him as a habitual drug user but also falsely claimed that he had recently been to rehab. He wrote that it “not only had me down as a habitual drug user, it had me recently going to rehab. Rehab!”

Harry claimed an editor “had got her mitts on some photos of Marko and me paying a visit to a suburban rehab centre, months earlier,” and he painted the visit as being “a typical part of my princely charitable work,” which the journalist had used and “repurposed the photos, made them visual aids for her libellous fiction.”

However, the journalist had misused these images to support her fabricated story, Harry claims. The distressed Prince recalled his reaction as he “gazed” at the photos and read the story “in shock”. He said: “I felt sickened, horrified, I imagined everyone, all my countrymen and countrywomen, reading these things, believing them.”

Harry revealed that he felt as though the entire Commonwealth was gossiping about him, a thought that left him deeply unsettled. He also suggested that his father, Charles, and future stepmother, Camilla, may have played a role in spreading these rumours, leaving him “heartbroken at the idea that this had been partly the work of my own family, my own father and future stepmother.”

He pondered over their possible involvement, questioning if they had “abetted this nonsense. For what? To make their own lives a bit easier? ” Harry then shared how he reached out to his brother William, who was unable to speak due to his own shock. Harry said he “phoned Willy, I couldn’t speak. He couldn’t either. He was sympathetic, and more.” Harry elaborated on the conversation further as he added: “At moments he was even angrier about the whole thing than I was, because he was privy to more details about the spin doctor and the backroom dealings that had led to this public sacrifice of the Spare.”

However, Harry confessed that William downplayed his distress, telling him that nothing could alter the past. He quoted William saying: “And yet, in the same breath, he assured me that there was nothing to be done. This was Pa. This was Camilla. This was royal life.”

The brothers’ relationship has since deteriorated, with reports suggesting they haven’t spoken for months.