A new book claims Prince Harry spends hours trawling through readers' comments on articles about himself and his wife Meghan, looking for offensive remarks and negative opinions. The habit was revealed by the prince himself to royal reporters, according to The Four Wives of Windsor by Simon Vigar.
Harry's pre-Meghan paranoia
The book examines the Duke of Sussex's paranoid behaviour and says he was concerned about his public image long before he met Meghan. At a reception for royal correspondents at Kensington Palace, Harry told reporters he scoured online comments on articles about himself.
“I and several colleagues told him he was mad and that he shouldn’t do it,” Vigar said. “Clearly our advice fell on deaf ears and he was reading online vitriol posted by all and sundry long before he met Meghan, which of course must only have added to his anger and sense of isolation.”
Media intrusion blamed for breakups
Vigar notes that Harry blamed unlawful media intrusion for his break-ups with Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas, and felt he would always be alone and that no woman would want to marry him. When Harry met Meghan, at least 90% of coverage was positive, but a paranoid Harry focused on reading often racist online comments on stories.
In the book, Vigar concludes: “It is complicated with Harry. He lost his mum at such a young age and as he admits himself, he never processed it. And then Meghan joins the family and she is used to the Hollywood PR machine where everything is controlled and you can’t do that with the Royal Family in the same way.”
A light-hearted boat incident
Vigar also recalls a more light-hearted moment during the 2012 Diamond Jubilee tour to the Bahamas and Jamaica. Harry’s speedboat broke down, so he and his team commandeered the press boat, leaving Vigar's cameraman bobbing in the broken boat waiting to be rescued.
The Four Wives of Windsor by Simon Vigar is published by Century on July 30.
