Which family members had to be sacrificed? He speaks on it like it’s game of thrones or some brutal Spartan sports which it is not all. The core working royals obviously have to have a good image because they represent the monarchy, so this idea that others were sacrificed to make Camilla look good is absolute nonsense and childish. Charles and Camilla have had bad press for over 30 years especially Charles who is dislike over his previous failed marriage time and time again, which is so annoying and unnecessary to me but others see it differently. Harry fails to realize or notice that many members of the BRF have had bad press over the years so I don’t get it.
I think that Harry has distorted, perverted and repurposed the notion that certain members of the royal family and courtiers on those royals behalf incessantly brief the media, and feed negative stories to the media about other royals.
Having said that, it has been alleged that Camilla herself briefed the media during the War of the Wales. IIRC this was said by a reporter or former courtier on camera as part of the Reinventing the Royals documentary. It was detailed enough to the point that the publication that she was briefing was named, The Sun, due to her having a connection to the wife of a Sun staffer.
From there Charles hired Mark Bolland to rehab his and Camilla's images, note this happened before Diana passed away. I don't agree with Harry that Camilla aspired to be Queen Consort at this point, my take is that it was simply that she and Charles were long-term partners and they wanted to have a life together without being tagged as horrible adulterers by the also adulterous Diana.
During Mark Bolland's tenure, he left c. 2002, that is where PR shenanigans took place that reporters and courtiers were willing to go on the record to detail, and yes other royals like William, Harry and Charles' brother Edward were appropriated by Bolland's team and "sacrificed" to enhance Charles and Camilla's images. It got so bad that Queen Elizabeth ultimately stepped in, Bolland was fired / quit and The Queen, who for the most part let Charles operate autonomously, appointed one of his high level staffers. When I say The Queen, either her directly or one of her trusted courtiers (IIRC).
I think that the worst of these shenanigans happened during the Bolland years, and I don't judge Harry too harshly if he has some residual resentment. I will also contend that the briefings continue to this day. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I consider the tiara story as the opening salvo on the British media going all negative-all the time on Meghan, and the "forensic analysis" that I did on the matter back in 2018 pointed to Clarence House as the source of that story. I am willing to provide detail but this is already a long post, but for now I will say that it is rooted in the biography by Robert Jobson of the then Prince Charles.
Where things get complicated / circular / chicken vs egg in my mind is that I do believe that the media can be getting information about Royal X and the source of that information is Royal Y's camp but the questions are:
- Are the "briefings" motivated by sacrificing royal X to boost Royal Y?
- Is a a royal / courtier the source of every leak?
- Regardless of the source, is the information more or less true?
- Are there "other culprits" like the silo-ed organization structure that exists?
- Is Camilla's chummy approach to the media fundamentally wrong?
- If Camilla's chummy approach to the media is fundamentally wrong, then what is the correct model for a modern royal family to operate under? While an argument can be made that the Daily Mail, the Sun, etc. are dishonest bottom-feeders, how do you propose that the BRF stay visible / carry out the EII mantra, "I have to be seen to be believed"? If Harry was still a working royal, would he be willing to, in lieu of coverage by the dreaded tabloids, accomplish being "seen" by doing hundreds of engagements across the UK? leaving his home base for several weeks, if not months, on foreign tours?
While I think that the briefings still happen, I will re-state that I think that Harry has perverted, distorted and repurposed the briefings, and will also add that IMO he has also used this phenomenon to further his own image and his hands are not entirely clean.