Insight

What comes next for Harry after the release of his book and Netflix series?

Prince Harry said writing his autobiography and filming his Netflix series was 'cathartic'. Credit: ITV

So, it’s done.

Four interviews by Prince Harry with major TV networks in the UK and US, six episodes of his and Meghan’s Netflix series and one, fast-selling, memoir.

Harry has said this "project" is now complete. So, what now?

Now comes the new chapter and as Tom Bradby put it to Harry in his ITV interview, a time to stop looking back and to start looking ahead.

If Harry and Meghan do think that documenting their complex and challenging time as working members of Royal Family is now over, no-one could accuse them of not doing a thorough job.

Harry described writing the book and filming the Netflix series as "cathartic".

His family is less likely to have experienced the same feelings of inner healing and calm.

The obvious question, asked many times since the interviews and the book release, is how on Earth Harry will ever reconcile with his family after this.

But there is a more interesting observation, that is a little more tricky to get your head around: it could have been much worse.

Really? Yes really.


New episodes of The Royal Rota are released every week - listen and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

For more royal news, like the ITV News Royals Facebook page. Our royal team are on Instagram, too.


Harry has now gotten off his chest his feelings about his stepmother (didn’t want his dad to marry Camilla, claimed she cosied up to the press to rehabilitate her image), he has told us what he thinks of his brother (William was his arch-nemesis, they fought, their rivalry was intense, Willy was always put first because he will becoming King), and the institution failed to protect him and Meghan (didn’t stand up to the press, wouldn’t deal with their mental health struggles, briefed negative stories).

But Harry did, by and large, spare his father from the sharpest and most wounding criticism (he wasn’t a great dad, didn’t get him the help, but did at least try).

In the Coronation year, the first since 1953, this book was always a very dangerous moment for the new Monarch.

His most visceral criticisms were for the British tabloid press, which he condemned again and again.

Harry has also taken racism off the table (didn’t put it in the book - and now says the baby skin colour chat as well as the Lady Susan Hussey row were examples of 'unconscious bias', not racism).

Prince Harry's interview with Tom Bradby was one of several he conducted to coincide with the launch of Spare. Credit: ITV

He also said, in his ITV and Good Morning America interviews, that he would, should the King ask him, consider doing some work in the Commonwealth.

Given the troubles William and Kate experienced in the Caribbean last year, that might not be such a terrible idea.

Harry and Meghan were given an award recently for, in part, standing up to institutional racism.

That might contradict his comments about racism in the Royal Family, but Harry - with or without Meghan - could be a very good ambassador for the palace in certain parts of the world right now.

Harry has also assured his family, with no hint of irony given he said it in a major television interview about his tell-all book, that any future conversations with them would remain 'private'.

But even if those differences can’t be resolved, most people agree that the time has come for Harry and Meghan to stop looking back.

They have financial security from the book, which is already the fastest-selling non-fiction title ever in the UK - and sales are high around the world.

Netflix and Spotify also paid them several million dollars.

They have both said their new lives will be similar to their old one, in just one respect: service.

We wait to see what difference public service, Harry and Meghan-style, can make in the world.