Harry says he wants royal reconciliation - it's hard to see that happening

We have all heard rather a lot from Prince Harry and his book in recent days, so tonight’s big interview was a moment to focus on what exactly Harry said about his memoirs and why he chose to write what he did about his brother and his father, about his past and about the monarchy’s connections with the British tabloid press.

Harry spends a good amount of time talking about his brother, William, and how their relationship was, and still is, characterised by an intense sibling rivalry – a “private Olympiad” he writes - made much worse by their positions in the order of succession to the British Crown.

Harry claims that that he does not intend to “damage” or to “hurt” his family, which might illicit a raised eyebrow or two in the Palace, given what’s in the book and in the interviews he has conducted ahead of its publication.

With no hint of irony, Harry says if his father and brother did ever talk about the contents of ‘Spare’ or his television interviews, what they discuss will “be in private”.

But throughout the more than 90 minutes on ITV, Harry maintains he still loves his brother despite detailing the fights they had – or as he describes them, physical attacks by William.

He describes how he’d always hoped the arrival of his own wife would heal the relationship with his brother and that “the four of us would get on” and do work together.

We now know it did not work out like that. Far from it.

The fault lies, in part, with the press, he said – not for the first time.

In fact, he blames the British press in just about every subject he discusses during the interview.

They created the “Fab Four”, he says, and then they set about taking it apart.

But his family, William and Kate included, were guilty of “stereotyping” Meghan because she was “American, actress, divorced, bi-racial”, Harry claimed.

He blames William for taking the press’ narrative on Meghan: that she was “abrasive” and she had “alienated” staff.

Some might suggest William was given this information directly by staff - rather than reading it in the newspapers.

But Harry doesn’t accuse his family of being racist.

In fact, he said neither he nor Meghan ever said it during that interview with Oprah Winfrey.

It was the press’ fault.

Yes, someone in the family (he won’t say who) asked about skin colour of his and Meghan’s children, but Harry said, the “white side of the family” often does in “bi-racial marriages”.

But his family are guilty of “unconscious bias”, the Prince claimed, and they should have committed to learning from that.

But they didn’t.

He holds a similar view of the recent race row when the late Queen’s long-serving aide, Lady Susan Hussey, asked charity worker, Ngozi Fulani, where she was “really from”.

Harry says “Meghan and I love Susan Hussey”, and she didn’t intend to cause any offence.

As for his father, now King, Harry says he wasn’t cut out to be a natural parent, and even less a single parent.

But his visceral criticisms are for the institution and the senior people who work in it, rather than the King himself.

Again and again, his central accusation is that the Palace has a toxic relationship with the British tabloid press in which the newspapers are fed stories in return for leaving other members of the family alone.

It is Camilla, the Queen Consort, who is singled out for the most criticism.

Harry insists he is content that his father is happy with her, despite asking them not to get married.

But she is, Harry claims, one of the family members who is “complicit” in this corrosive press-palace relationship.

Harry implies, that the Queen Consort, decided to “get into bed with the devil to rehabilitate” her image.

And that decision, he maintains, comes at the detriment of others, like him and Meghan.

“That’s where I draw the line,” Harry says.

He also implied that the Queen Consort’s good work in combatting violence against women and girls (she does a lot of work with domestic abuse charities) is undermined by the palace's silence on Jeremy Clarkson’s recent column in The Sun.

Clarkson, who has known Camilla for many years and recently appeared in a documentary about her 75th birthday, wrote a deeply offensive article about Meghan.

“Silence is deafening to put it mildly”, Harry said, after the Royal Family did not respond.

Does Harry and Meghan share any of the blame, Harry was asked?

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“I’m sure we’ve got some things wrong”, he said without detailing exactly what.

Harry does acknowledge that the Monarchy, and those in it, need to be subject to scrutiny – although he avoids answering a question about whether it’s in the public interest that the third in line to the throne, as he was at the time, had taken cocaine.

He only answers: “What’s in the public interest is the relationship between the tabloids and the institution”.

And his visceral hated of the paparazzi is understandable as we hear Harry movingly describe how he asked to see the photographs of his mother’s car crash and saw “her blond hair on the back of the seat”.

But he talks about seeing the reflections in the car of the photographers who were “just shooting, shooting” pictures of Diana as she lay dying.

We can all agree with Harry when he describes that as a “stomach-clenching” moment.

His has been a life of privilege but also of great heartache and mental stress.

But at 38-years-old, and from the other side of the Atlantic, he has decided to tell his story and put into the public domain some very private family moments.

He says he wants his family back and he wants to reconcile – even that he could do some work in the Commonwealth should the King want him to.

But right now, and after all of this, it’s hard to see how reconciliation is remotely possible.