Outspoken journo and author Peter FitzSimons has defended Prince Harry in the wake of the slew of intimate bombshell revelations the young royal’s memoir Spare has presented to the public.
Mr FitzSimons, who is the husband of Lisa Wilkinson, responded firmly to a Twitter commenter who branded the prince a “sook” and a “weak man” who was effectively being “controlled by a manipulative woman” – stating that Harry’s wife Meghan Markle was in fact the direct cause for him “knifing his own family” with the release of Spare, and that “this is her revenge…using him to do the dirty work.”
“That is way too simplistic, in my view,” wrote FitzSimons in response to the Twitter user.
“His broad point is, “They have leaked against me and my wife for years. I am not leaking, I am putting my name to my views, and this is what happened.” And to me he sounds credible.”
That is way too simplistic, in my view.
His broad point is, “They have leaked against me and my wife for years. I am not leaking, I am putting my name to my views, and this is what happened.”
And to me he sounds credible. https://t.co/S0owBdBiMP— Peter FitzSimons (@Peter_Fitz) January 9, 2023
Prince Harry has recently defended his actions in revealing family secrets in the biography during interviews with UK and US TV networks, saying that he was simply retaliating against being leaked against by other royals – including his stepmother Camilla Parker Bowles.
FitzSimons appears to agree with this stance, continuing: “As to the notion that he shouldn’t tell family secrets, his equal point is that everyone else in the Royal Family has been leaking to the press for years. They have told several books worth, courtesy of the tabloid press. So, for once, he can tell his own story.”
In response to a different Twitter user who asked why an “intelligent man” would waste time thinking about the royal family, FitzSimons further revealed his reasons for defending Prince Harry, suggesting that the fallout between the young prince and the rest of the royal family would almost certainly have implications in the Australian republic debate.
“One reason is, the whole imbroglio speaks to the republic. The notion that this is a special family – put there by God to be so much better than the rest of us, that they must reign over us – is wearing a bit thin, yes?” he tweeted.
Despite having stepped down as head of the Australian Republican Movement last October, FitzSimons continues to lobby for Australia to dispense with heads of state that lie within a royal family.
On Tuesday morning Jan 10, Bill Shorten – Minister for Government Services for the Albanese government – also pushed for Australia to become a republic by saying on the Today show: “It’s a shame to see a family bust-up but perhaps at the deepest level, why do we need to keep borrowing a dysfunctional British family to be the Head of State of Australia?
‘It’s gossip but scintillating. To me it just shows there’s a lot of damage and trauma but at another level this is just family gossip.
“And it reminds me that this family are the head of state of Australia, so it really puts a question mark around our government structures, where we’ve got a feuding family on the other side of the world who seem to really not like each other very much – they’re actually the head of Australia.”
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