07 January 2023 , 18:42
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Prince Harry ’s claims in his new book have caused deep pain to his father, a friend of King Charles has said.
Jonathan Dimbleby believes that the monarch is “very frustrated” by the situation and “would be very anxious to bring it to an end.”
The broadcaster interviewed Charles in 1994 when the then Prince of Wales admitted to having an affair, and the pair have maintained a friendship ever since.
The memoir, Spare, is due to be released on Tuesday in the UK but was accidentally released early in Spain.
In it he includes personal details of his love life, drug-taking and rifts within his family.
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Prince Harry's memoir Spare was leaked after copies were put on sale by accident in Spain (Press Association Images)Referring to the book, Mr Dimbleby told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Charles is possibly "deeply pained by it but he will get on with the job - that's what they do".
He also said the disclosures in Harry's memoir are the sort that usually “come from B-list celebrities”, and that he was “perplexed” by Harry’s decision to publish.
Mr Dimbley told the broadcaster: "I'm concerned incidentally that everyone uses the word 'revelations'.
"Yes, there are obviously revelations about how he lost his virginity, taking drugs and how many people he feels he might have shot down in Afghanistan from his Apache, but those are the kinds of revelations in part that you would expect, I suppose, from a kind of B-list celebrity.
Jonathan Dimbleby said he was perplexed at Harry's decision to release the book (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)"Much more significant are not what you would call revelations but allegations - complaints, the anger and pain of what he is saying.
"His assertion that this is his side because so far there has only been one side. It seems to me that I have not heard the other side at all because the other side is always silent."
In a clip which was released ahead of the interview on Sunday, Harry said he would like to reconciled with his family and that conversations need to be had.
Mr Dimbleby continued: "So I am perplexed.
The Duke of Sussex has claimed his father was jealous of both his wife, Meghan, and his sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales (PA)"I genuinely can't believe it is merely to make a great deal of money because of the perfectly natural urge to want to protect his family, his wife and his children in a very uncertain future.
"I think there is much more to that, but if he wants reconciliation, I don't understand how you do it by, as it were metaphorically, sitting in your Apache and firing pot shots at people who are not going to fire back, as he must very well know."
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He added that Harry actions go back to "the acute enduring distress of the loss" of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car crash in 1997.
Speaking on whether or not Harry would be invited to the coronation, he said that he would be
"very surprised" if he was not, because to do otherwise would "simply fuel the flames".
He added that questions over a range of issues in the royal family such as transparency, funding, and its scale and size, remain, but Mr Dimbleby did not feel it is under threat or that Charles's reputation has been damaged.