Prince Harry‘s portrayal of King Charles as a distant father is being challenged by someone who spent time with the Royal Family behind closed doors.
More than three years after the release of Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare, which provided an intimate look at his relationship with his father, one that painted him in a poor light, a new royal memoir is providing a different perspective. Ruthie Henshall, who dated Prince Edward for several years, wrote in her new book about how she recalled seeing a side of Charles with his sons that contrasted with some of Harry’s memories. Read more about her new book and what she had to say about the father-son relationship below.
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Prince Harry Described King Charles As An Emotionally Distant Father In 'Spare'
There have been a lot of big moments since the departure of the famous redhead and his wife, Meghan Markle, from the royal family in 2020. However, one of the most revealing was the publication of Harry's memoir, Spare, which exposed the harsher sides of numerous royal family members.
In Spare, Harry was candid about his father's difficulty expressing affection and emotion while raising him. Though his stories about him were not entirely negative, and he also recalled his dad writing him letters and expressing pride in him, the prince overall portrayed his father as someone who struggled to communicate his feelings face-to-face. One of the most notable examples of this was when Harry recalled Charles telling him that Princess Diana had died. He described his father as struggling to show emotion during the devastating moment and recalled how Charles attempted to reassure him.
"Pa didn't hug me," he wrote. "He wasn't great at showing emotions under normal circumstances." In another story in the memoir, Harry added that the king "had trouble communicating, trouble listening, trouble being intimate face-to-face."
Royal Insider Writes New Memoir That Goes Against Harry's 'Spare' Claims
There's a new royal memoir making rounds and headlines, and it was written by Ruthie Henshall, the 59-year-old English actress who starred in various big theater productions and notably dated Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II and brother of King Charles.
In her book, The Showgirl and the Prince, which was published on July 16th, she recounts her relationship with Prince Edward and her experiences with the Royal Family, including time spent at Balmoral, the Scottish residence where the family tends to relax. Her stories offer a much warmer picture of the king as a father, especially when she described seeing him interact with William and Harry when they were children.
"I watched Charles playing rough and tumble with William and Harry (then aged ten and eight) in the Balmoral corridors," she wrote. "He clearly loved those boys, and they were squealing with joy as daddy chased them."
At another point, the actress wrote that she had "nothing but nice things" to say about the members of the royal family she spent time with, including Charles, making the dad-of-two's 2023 memoir look a little less reputable. Though she wasn't present for a lot of Harry's life, her stories are making the public keep a slightly more open mind when it comes to those trying to hurt the king's reputation.
