Prince Harry is tacky and treacherous, but why should we expect any different from a member of Britain’s royal family?

The Duke of Sussex had no qualms in sticking the knife into his family in his interview with Oprah Winfrey. But that’s no surprise – he has a massive, misplaced sense of privileged entitlement, and guess where he picked that up?

While most of the attention has focused on Meghan Markle, or the Duchess of Sussex as she is officially known, the key player in this real-life soap opera is Prince Harry.

The disconnect, breakdown, betrayal and revenge only involves him. It’s his family that was roasted in front of the world via Oprah’s bombshell interview. Clearly, Harry has no loyalty to them.

He sold them down the river and allowed them to be portrayed in the worst possible circumstances. It’s one thing to disagree with your family, but it’s quite another to enable them to be branded racist, vindictive and manipulating in full view of the entire planet.

Harry threw them to the wolves. And for what? The primary reason seems to have been to boost the profile and image of his marriage, so the Sussexes’ upcoming Netflix and Spotify content will be viewed more favourably. The message was clear: “I’m not one of them.”

Stripping away the titles and tiaras, he has a brother, father and grandparents who have raised him after his mother passed away. It is absolutely callous to allow that to be trashed.

No matter what fine details were discussed, all that lingers from these type of ghastly tell-alls are the broad strokes. The Royal Family come out of this looking like a bunch of obnoxious snobs. And it’s too easy to say Meghan has caused this by manipulating him.

She may have had an influence, but he is just as savvy about the way the media works. He knew full-well what sitting down with Oprah meant. His mother trademarked this kind of interview with her BBC exposé in the 90s, which saw his father Prince Charles’ public image incinerated.

What Harry has done is the ultimate in treachery, and has no greater purpose. This is not a public organisation that can be changed, but a close-knit family who take no notice of anyone else.

While Harry is culpable, though, it’s not his fault. He was reared in the mindset of being privileged and entitled. His father and older brother do nothing apart from ceremonial duties in return for the lifestyles of multi-millionaires.

Both of his parents had affairs; indeed, their marriage was seemingly broken from the moment they left St Paul’s Cathedral after saying their vows.

His grandparents appear to be ignorant of issues like racism, have done little to address it for decades and, in the Duke of Edinburgh’s case, actually contributed to.

Britain’s royal family is, quite simply, a public relations machine. There’s always a pressing need to present an image of public duty and service. They do everything to maintain a sheen of supposed class, but anything more than a cursory glance shows them up to be a group of tacky opportunists.

So, for Harry to air their dirty laundry to a chat show host was to be expected. All he knows if under attack is to reframe the debate and deflect. He’s been taught to only care about his image and interests.

The perfect example was in the lead-up to the interview, when reports broke of allegations of his wife bullying royal staff. That story was handpicked to get the first shot in and discredit any strikes on the Palace following the interview.

Consider Prince Andrew. He has accusations dangling over his head about sex with underage girls. But the royal family have tightened the circle to protect him, to keep their hollow standing intact. And that’s what Harry is doing, too. He only has one mode, and it’s to defend an image – even if it’s garbage.

The hypocrisy is staggering, with regular talk about wanting to escape the media, but then signing up to produce video and audio content, along with interviews like this one with Oprah and last week’s with James Corden.

It screams of the Royal ethos of “we will do and say as we please, even if it’s contradictory, and expect no one to hold us to account.”

They would all be far better off growing up and showing some maturity, although that may be hard as none of them has ironed a shirt, cleaned a bed or done any formal work in their lives.

Instead of hanging grimly on to their tainted titles, why don’t they focus on their family? Princess Anne is the only one who seems to even understand this concept; her two kids have fruitful lives after she declined royal titles for them.

The rest seem to have no problem making their way giving speeches or acting as patrons for various causes. The laughable part of this is that they are barely qualified to do this, with no real- life experience to offer worthwhile leadership. Yet still they assume these roles.

People have to pay an entrance fee to visit Buckingham Palace, while The Queen collects taxpayers’ money to finance refurbishments. The Duchy of Cornwall owns a vast area of land, but the Duke – currently Prince Charles – is exempt from corporation tax. Prince William and Kate spent £60,000 using the royal train for a three-day tour of the UK in December.

Everything about their existence involves privilege and money, as was demonstrated in February when the Queen – who is supposed to be politically neutral – was outed for getting involved in the vetting of laws, in some cases ones that directly affected her.

This was the family Prince Harry was born into. They have no motivation or desire to do anything other than milk their financial benefits and privileged life. Is it any wonder he knows no better and so has stuck the knife in with this interview?  

And you can guarantee one thing: there’s no way this war is over, as the two sides will continue trading blows to bolster their images for fear their cosseted existences suffer. Sadly, there’s more to come.

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