A new book by veteran royal biographer Tom Bower claims that Queen Camilla told a friend “Meghan’s brainwashed Harry,” igniting fresh controversy around the fractured relationship between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the British royal family. The book, titled Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, is scheduled for official release on March 26, 2026, but excerpts were first serialized in The Times newspaper on March 13, according to Yahoo Entertainment.
The explosive claim attributed to Queen Camilla is among the most attention-grabbing revelations in the book, which also alleges that Prince Harry changed his telephone number without informing his family. Bower, who is 79 years old, has built a career on deeply reported — and often polarizing — biographies of powerful figures. His previous royal book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors, was published in 2022, as National World reported.
The Sussexes wasted no time pushing back. A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle issued a statement to People magazine, saying Bower’s “commentary has long crossed the line from criticism into fixation.” The statement went further, describing the book as containing “deranged conspiracy and melodrama,” according to People Magazine via AOL.
Buckingham Palace, for its part, declined to comment on the book. The Palace does not respond to biographies, maintaining a long-standing policy of silence on such publications. The lack of an official royal response leaves the claims to stand largely unchallenged from the institution’s side, fueling public speculation about what is truly happening behind palace walls.
The Invictus Games Foundation, closely associated with Prince Harry — who founded the international sporting competition for wounded, injured, and sick service members in 2014 — also weighed in. A spokesperson for the foundation called it “disappointing to see The Times give prominence to commentary that appears driven by a long-established agenda.”
Harry and Meghan married in 2018 at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and their relationship with the royal family has been strained ever since they stepped back from their senior royal roles in 2020 and moved to California. The couple’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired on March 7, 2021, deepened the rift considerably, as GB News reported.
The distance between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family appears to have only grown since then. Harry and Meghan have not made a joint trip to the UK since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September 2022. Prince Harry was in the UK on January 18, 2026, for his legal trial against Associated Newspapers Limited, but according to GB News, he did not meet King Charles or Prince William during that visit.
Meanwhile, the couple has remained active on the international stage. The Sussexes conducted a visit to Colombia in August 2024 and took a trip to Jordan in February 2026 in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, centered on humanitarian health efforts and mental health, according to Sunday Guardian Live. Harry and Meghan have two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Their commercial ventures have drawn scrutiny as well. The couple signed a deal reported to be worth more than $100 million with Netflix in 2020. The first series of Meghan’s Netflix show With Love, Meghan launched in March 2025, coinciding with the unveiling of her lifestyle brand “As Ever.” However, National World reported that figures showed the show failed to crack the top 1,000 most-watched programmes on the platform — a detail that has added to questions about the couple’s media strategy.
Bower’s latest book arrives at a moment when public interest in the royal rift shows no sign of fading. The serialization in The Times ensures maximum exposure ahead of the March 26 release, as IBTimes UK noted. Whether the claims within its pages bring new pressure on the Palace or simply add another chapter to an already exhaustive public saga remains to be seen.
For now, the battle lines are drawn. The Sussexes have made clear they view Bower’s work as agenda-driven fiction. The Palace remains silent. And the reading public, as ever, is left to parse competing narratives about one of the most scrutinized families on earth, as Hola reported.
