We don’t often look at it this way, but being born a member of the Royal Family is something of a double-edged sword. Sure, royals are instantly born into a life of incredible fame and unspeakable wealth. At the same time, those royals are born with a target on their back, something they often find out when dealing with roving paparazzi and monstrous tabloid headlines.
Prince Harry is someone who discovered this double-edged sword long ago. As the son of the future King of England, he was thrust instantly into the spotlight. But the tabloids often painted Harry as a careless party boy, all while spreading cruel rumors about him.
The cruelest rumor is that King Charles isn’t actually Harry’s father. Where does this rumor come from, and how does Prince Harry actually feel about it? Keep reading to discover the answers!
How the rumors got started
In his recent court testimony, Prince Harry gave an example of a newspaper pushing the hurtful lie that then-Prince Charles was not Harry’s biological father. According to Us Weekly, Harry commented on an article with the headline, “Plot to Rob the DNA of Harry,” saying that the dangerous rumors being peddled by the media felt real to him during a time when he was especially vulnerable.
This particular article simply made the insinuation that Harry didn’t share his father’s DNA, but that was enough for other writers and other tabloids to build off of for years. Rather than being a passing fad, this rumor effectively dominated much of Prince Harry’s young adult life. And as it turns out, his actual father kept making things worse!
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How Charles made things worse
Recently, Harry released his memoir, Spare, which has plenty of juicy royal gossip in it. And according to E! News, this includes stories of how his father would make nasty jokes about those tabloid headlines. “Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father,” Charles allegedly asked. “Maybe your real father is in Broadmoor, darling boy!’
Growing up, Harry knew that this was simply an “unfunny joke.” But this goes to show how the headlines had an effect on his life that went beyond the tabloids and into the very walls of his home.
Why the rumors can’t actually be true
Despite how persistent these rumors about Harry and Charles are, they can’t be true. The reason we are so confident about this is that the only other man who could be Harry’s biological dad is James Hewitt, Princess Diana’s riding instructor and a man that she had an affair with while still married to Charles.
Most of the modern rumors about Harry having a secret dad point to Hewitt, but that can’t actually be possible. As reported by Page Six, Harry has pointed out how his mother hadn’t even met Hewitt “until after I was born.” Still, nobody lets the truth get in the way of a good story, so the rumor has persisted all these years.
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Harry takes historic action
All these years later, Prince Harry has gotten the chance to strike back at the media bigwigs who made both his and his mother’s lives miserable. He is part of a group of over 100 high-profile people suing Mirror Group Newspapers over the content it regularly publishes in tabloids such as the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror.
As Reuters points out, Harry taking the stand is a very historic act. In doing so, he has “become the first senior British royal to give evidence in court for 130 years.” Historically, the Royal Family has avoided testifying for fears that it could make the entire family look bad. However, Harry clearly feels it’s time to take the fight directly to the tabloids, especially after how they made him feel.
How the rumors made Harry feel
When Prince Harry discussed how the rumors about King Charles not being his father made him feel, he didn’t mince words. According to Us Weekly, he said, “At the time, when I was 18 years old and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories such as this felt very damaging and very real to me.” Continuing, he summed everything up nicely: “They were hurtful, mean and cruel.”
In retrospect, it’s honestly hard to disagree with Harry’s assessment here. The media magnates behind these tabloids built on the untimely death of Princess Diana to turn her traumatized young son into ongoing grist for the rumor mill. We can’t exactly blame Harry for his anger!
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Harry’s dark and paranoid suspicions
Interestingly, Harry has some suspicions regarding these rumors. While most people might dismiss these tawdry stories as a quick way for newspapers to make a buck, Harry thinks those behind them may be part of a more ambitious plot against his royal reputation.
As reported by Yahoo!, Harry said, “I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories. Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so that I might be ousted from the Royal Family?”
Obviously, there is no definitive way to answer that question right now. But we can’t help but feel that since “Megxit” caused Harry to step back from most royal responsibilities and flee the country altogether because of tabloids regarding Meghan Markle, then the newspapers may have effectively gotten Harry to oust himself from the good graces of his famous family.