Harry's Misery

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Diana phoned Camilla one night and said: 'I sent someone to kill you - and they're outside': Shocking new details of the poison that scarred Harry's childhood - by a top royal biographer

Even before his mother's death Harry had endured the misery that comes with a broken home, warring parents and a dad who was often absent. The prince was only eight when he and William, aged 10, went on their first holiday without their parents in the summer of 1993, almost two years after Charles and Diana's very public separation. Like his brother, he had to endure his parents' very bitter divorce, the revelation of their affairs and even their most intimate secrets, from Diana's eating disorder and self-harming to Charles's excruciatingly embarrassing phone conversations with Camilla (top right). Contrary to what Diana believed, there was no campaign to discredit her following the separation. A lot has been written about his parents' marriage and why it failed, but the facts need to be reiterated because it affected Harry deeply. The man he is today is a product of that broken home and all that he heard and felt during his childhood, writes PENNY JUNOR.