I’ve been in the room before when Harry has just decided to open up, when allowed to talk he is a man who will very firmly wear his heart on his sleeve.
This interview with the BBC was meant to be about this appeal court ruling, but he has gone so much further than that.
What is so clear, and we’ve heard this through the court hearings, is that this has been the most personal crusade for him.
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He has seen it as a point of principle, but also as an issue that he believes has seriously put him at risk, and most importantly, his family.
What is striking are the other things that he’s decided to talk about.
Yes, he’s clearly very angry at the decision by the Home Office not to give him automatic police protection, but what is telling is the fact that he talks about the establishment stitch-up, alluding to the men in grey suits who he believes turned against him and Meghan, also a statement that in the past Princess Diana alluded to.
And then, of course, he talks about his family.
Who would’ve even expected him to bring up his book unprompted? And the fact that he says some of his family will never forgive him for it.
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The Duke of Sussex leaves the Royal Courts of Justice following the start of his appeal. Pic: PA
But if we wanted to have any sense of how much Harry continues to be shut out of family life, it comes in what he says about his father and not knowing how long he has to live.
You can tell that, in some ways, he believes that his father could have done more.
Certainly, there have been suggestions of that over the last year, now we know exactly how much it’s stood in the way of him building bridges with his family and, in particular, his father.
