The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have fired back at author Tom Bower ahead of the release of his latest book, Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, dismissing his writing as something that has long “crossed the line from criticism into fixation.”
The book, due out later this month, contains a string of incendiary claims about the royal couple and those closest to them. Among them: that Queen Camilla reportedly told a friend “Meghan’s brainwashed Harry,” and that the Prince and Princess of Wales viewed Meghan as “a threat” as tensions within the family mounted ahead of the Sussexes’ departure for the United States.
In a pointed statement, Harry and Meghan did not hold back.
“This is someone who has publicly stated, ‘the monarchy in fact depends on actually obliterating the Sussexes from our state of life’ — language that speaks for itself,” the statement read. “He has made a career out of constructing ever more elaborate theories about people he does not know and has never met. Those interested in facts will look elsewhere; those seeking deranged conspiracy and melodrama know exactly where to find him.”
Bower’s extracts, released on March 13, also turn to Prince Harry’s relationship with his uncle, the disgraced Prince Andrew. The author suggests Harry was deeply unsettled by Andrew’s fall from grace following the exposure of his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The unpredicted and unimagined humiliation of Andrew shocked Harry,” Bower writes, adding that Harry allegedly fears a future King William could strip the Sussexes of their titles and effectively bar him from Britain.
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The book also revisits a reported confrontation between Meghan and William at a reconciliation meeting shortly after the couple’s 2018 honeymoon — a teatime gathering that, according to Bower, unravelled rapidly. He claims Meghan told William: “If you don’t mind, get your finger out of my face.”
Bower further takes aim at the couple’s Netflix partnership and their presence at the 2025 Invictus Games — the tournament Harry founded for wounded and veteran military personnel — snidely referring to it as “the Meghan Games.” He alleges that following what he characterises as the failure of their streaming deal, Harry agreed that Meghan “could star” at the event.
The pushback from the Sussexes comes amid Harry’s ongoing legal battle with the British press. In January 2026, he appeared in the High Court close to tears, accusing Associated Newspapers Ltd — publisher of the Daily Mail — of deliberately trying to drive him “to drugs and drinking” through sustained surveillance, and of making Meghan’s life “an absolute misery.”