Prince Harry likes telling us his truth. Now he wants to tell us the King’s, too

During the publicity round that ensured his memoir, Spare, became an international bestseller, Prince Harry revealed how “grateful” he was for the opportunity to “own my story”.

Now, as he drums up support for the Invictus Games – the sporting tournament he started for armed forces personnel with life-altering injuries, which will have its first winter sports spin-off next year – it seems Harry is keen to own his father’s, too.

This morning, the Duke of Sussex was full of gratitude again as his latest bombshell interview with a US news network was broadcast. This time, according to the trailers, it concerned “his father’s cancer battle and how it is bringing his family together”.

The exclusive ABC News one-to-one – with Will Reeve, son of late Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who was paralysed in a riding accident in 1995 – had been filmed earlier this week in a sunny but icy resort in Whistler, where Invictus athletes are already in training for the 2025 games.

Harry, always puppyishly enthusiastic for a physical challenge, was invited to attempt the skeleton – and gamely hurtled down the frozen track face-first, at a breakneck 60km an hour. “Great!” was his verdict. It was also a chance for him to let go of his wife Meghan’s hand for a bit.

Then, after lying on his belly in front of the cameras, he was ready for his interview with Good Morning America.

In an unusually brief segment, broadcast across the US, he revealed how “grateful” he was – that word again – to have visited his father earlier this month, following King Charles’s cancer diagnosis. He now hopes it can help heal the giant rift in the royal family, which, if memory serves, he and his wife created when they pointedly stepped back as senior members of it in 2020.

“Look, I love my family,” he insisted, before going on to rhapsodise about “the strength of the family unit coming together”.

He then added: “Any illness, any sickness brings a family together.” Recollections may vary but it’s on the record that Prince Harry failed to visit his ailing grandfather in the year before his death – and missed his memorial service.

It’s been a busy week in Montecito. On Monday, with some fanfare, the couple formerly known as royal relaunched their website, Sussex.com, which used a royal coat of arms, in what some say amounts to cashing in on their connections, as well as several smiley photographs that had been given a suspiciously regal-looking purple sepia.

Perhaps to chime with the rebrand, the pair revealed that they have changed their family name, so it’s now Archie and Lilibet Sussex, rather than Mountbatten-Windsor. Definitely nothing royal to be seen here. Are we all clear?

Their public turn in a chilly Whistler, part of a three-day break, marks the first time Harry and Meghan have been seen out since their little website refresh. On this occasion, Meghan seemed not to mind taking a back seat, politely refused a go on the skeleton, and instead gave her hubby moral support, making adoring eyes at him and demonstrably placing her hand on her heart, in that way she does, from a distance.

While she mostly stayed away from the cameras, she did come armed with her own, taking photos from the edge of the skeleton run. Keep your eyes peeled on the decidedly un-royal Sussex Insta account, folks!