Prince Harry Interviews: Main Points

File Photo: Britain's Prince Harry leaves after attending a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022 on the second of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (AP)
File Photo: Britain's Prince Harry leaves after attending a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022 on the second of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (AP)
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Prince Harry Interviews: Main Points

File Photo: Britain's Prince Harry leaves after attending a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022 on the second of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (AP)
File Photo: Britain's Prince Harry leaves after attending a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022 on the second of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (AP)

Here are the main points from Prince Harry's first two television interviews to publicize his new autobiography "Spare", aired on Sunday.

- On why he wrote the book -Harry told Britain's ITV channel he had endured "38 years... of intentional spin and distortion".

He said he had "no intention" of harming anyone in his family by releasing the book.

But he said he needed to speak out as "certain members have decided to get in bed with the devil to rehabilitate their image", at his and his family's expense.

- On his mother's funeral -Harry recalled walking behind Princess Diana's coffin at her funeral in 1997, when he was aged just 12.

"The bridles chinking, you know, going down The Mall, the hooves going down the concrete and the occasional... gravel underneath the foot and the wails from the crowd," he recalled.

"But otherwise complete silence is something that will stick with me forever."

- On Diana's death -Harry said he read the secret government file into Diana's death, redacted by his private secretary of the most graphic descriptions and photographs of the scene.

He said he had driven as an adult through the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, where she died in a car crash.

"There's a lot of things that are unexplained," he said.

"But I've been asked before whether I want to open up a, you know, another inquiry. I don't really see the point at this stage."

In an interview aired later on America's CBS, Harry said that for "many years" part of him believed his mother had just disappeared and that "she would call us and we would go and join her."

- On his relationship with William -Harry spoke of his long-standing sibling rivalry with Prince William, how they used to fight as boys, how William ignored him at school and even tried to get him to shave off his beard before his wedding to Meghan.

He accused William of later swallowing the British tabloid media portrayal of Meghan, leading on one occasion to William physically attacking him.

Harry said that, had he not been having therapy after the trauma of his childhood, he would have fought back.

Harry told CBS he and William were not currently in touch, nor had he spoken to his father "for quite a while."

- On William, Kate and Meghan -Harry said William and Kate were fans of the US legal drama "Suits" in which Meghan starred.

But he said he thought they were not expecting him to get involved with someone like Meghan and "there was a lot stereotyping" of her as a biracial, divorced American actress.

That caused "a bit of a barrier" to welcoming her to the family, he said.

Harry stressed though that William never tried to dissuade him from marrying Meghan.

- On claims of royal racism -Harry denied he or Meghan had accused the royal family of racism but said there was unconscious bias at the palace which still needed to be addressed.

A recent incident in which a senior courtier, Susan Hussey, repeatedly asked a black British charity worker, Ngozi Fulani, where she was "really from" was an example of that, he said.

Harry said in the CBS interview: "Hell, I was probably bigoted before the relationship with Meghan."

- On the media -Harry spoke at length about the British tabloid press, accusing it of complicity and collusion with the palace, as well as racism, cronyism and duplicity.

He suggested the negative coverage he and Meghan had suffered was a result of his legal claims for alleged phone hacking against three British newspapers.

The wider aim of the claims, he said, had been to rein in tabloid excesses.

- On what he wants to achieve -Harry said he believed "100 percent" he could reconcile with his family and that could have a "ripple effect across the world".

But he conceded that his father King Charles III and his brother were unlikely to read his book or watch the interview.

- On the future -Harry said he was now "in such a good headspace" to deal with any tricky conversations with his family.

"It's been hard, I'm not going to lie," he said of the last few years, but added: "The reality is I've never been happier."



Movie Review: A Weird ‘Superman’ Is Better than a Boring One

 Cast member David Corenswet attends a premiere for the film "Superman" at the TCL Chinese theater in Los Angeles, California, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member David Corenswet attends a premiere for the film "Superman" at the TCL Chinese theater in Los Angeles, California, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
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Movie Review: A Weird ‘Superman’ Is Better than a Boring One

 Cast member David Corenswet attends a premiere for the film "Superman" at the TCL Chinese theater in Los Angeles, California, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member David Corenswet attends a premiere for the film "Superman" at the TCL Chinese theater in Los Angeles, California, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a ... a purple and orange shape-shifting chemical compound?

Writer-director James Gunn’s “Superman” was always going to be a strange chemistry of filmmaker and material. Gunn, the mind behind “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Suicide Squad,” has reliably drifted toward a B-movie superhero realm populated (usually over-populated) with the lesser-known freaks, oddities and grotesquerie of back-issue comics.

But you don’t get more mainstream than Superman. And let’s face it, unless Christopher Reeve is in the suit, the rock-jawed Man of Steel can be a bit of a bore. Much of the fun and frustration of Gunn’s movie is seeing how he stretches and strains to make Superman, you know, interesting.

In the latest revamp for the archetypal superhero, Gunn does a lot to give Superman (played with an easy charm by David Corenswet) a lift. He scraps the origin story. He gives Superman a dog. And he ropes in not just expected regulars like Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) but some less conventional choices — none more so than that colorful jumble of elements, Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan).

Metamorpho, a melancholy, mutilated man whose powers were born out of tragedy, is just one of many side shows in “Superman.” But he’s the most representative of what Gunn is going for. Gunn might favor a traditional-looking hero at the center, like Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” And Corenswet, complete with hair curl, looks the part, too. But Gunn’s heart is with the weirdos who soldier on.

The heavy lift of “Superman” is making the case that the perfect superhuman being with “S” on his chest is strange, too. He’s a do-gooder at a time when no one does good anymore.

Not everything works in “Superman.” For those who like their Superman classically drawn, Gunn’s film will probably seem too irreverent and messy. But for anyone who found Zack Snyder’s previous administration painfully ponderous, this “Superman,” at least, has a pulse.

It would be hard to find a more drastic 180 in franchise stewardship. Where Snyder’s films were super-serious mythical clashes of colossuses, Gunn’s “Superman” is lightly earthbound, quirky and sentimental. When this Superman flies, he even keeps his arms back, like an Olympic skeleton rider.

We begin not on Krypton or Kansas but in Antarctica, near the Fortress of Solitude. The opening titles set-up the medias res beginning. Three centuries ago, metahumans first appeared on Earth. Three minutes ago, Superman lost a battle for the first time. Lying bloodied in the snow, he whistles and his faithful super dog, Krypto, comes running.

Like some of Gunn’s other novelty gags (I’m looking at you Groot), Krypto is both a highlight and overused gag throughout. Superman is in the midst of a battle by proxy with Luthor. From atop his Luthor Corp. skyscraper headquarters, Luther gives instructions to a team sitting before computer screens while, on a headset, barking out coded battle directions to drone-assisted henchmen. “13-B!” he shouts, like a Bingo caller.

Whether this is an ideal localizing of main characters in conflict is a debate that recedes a bit when, back in Metropolis, Clark Kent returns to the Daily Planet. There’s Wendell Pierce as the editor-in-chief, Perry White, and Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen. But the character of real interest here is, of course, Lois.

She and Kent are already an item in “Superman.” When alone, Lois chides him over the journalistic ethics of interviewing himself after some daring do, and questions his flying into countries without their leaders’ approval. Brosnahan slides so comfortably into the role that I wonder if “Superman” ought to have been “Lois,” instead. Her scenes with Corenswet are the best in the film, and the movie loses its snap when she’s not around.

That’s unfortunately for a substantial amount of time. Luthor traps Superman in a pocket universe (enter Metamorpho, among others) and the eccentric members of the Justice Gang — Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern, Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl — are called upon to lend a hand. They come begrudgingly. But if there’s anyone else that comes close to stealing the movie, it’s Gathegi, who meets increasingly absurd cataclysm with wry deadpan.

The fate of the world, naturally, again turns iffy. There’s a rift in the universe, not to mention some vaguely defined trouble in Boravia and Jarhanpur. In such scenes, Gunn's juggling act is especially uneasy and you can feel the movie lurching from one thing to another. Usually, that's Krypto's cue to fly back into the movie and run amok.

Gunn, who now presides over DC Studios with producer Peter Safran, is better with internal strife than he is international politics. Superman is often called “the Kryptonian” or “the alien" by humans, and Gunn leans into his outsider status. Not for the first time, Superman’s opponents try to paint him as an untrustworthy foreigner. With a modicum of timeliness, “Superman” is an immigrant story.

Mileage will inevitably vary when it comes to Gunn’s idiosyncratic touch. He can be outlandish and sweet, often at once. In a conversation between metahumans, he will insert a donut into the scene for no real reason, and cut from a body falling through the air to an Alka-Seltzer tablet dropping into a glass. Some might call such moments glib, a not-unfair label for Gunn. But I’d say they make this pleasantly imperfect “Superman” something quite rare in the assembly line-style of superhero moviemaking today: human.