Prince Harry says Buckingham Palace 'spoon-fed' stories to the press about him and Meghan Markle

• Prince Harry says his family planted stories as he and Meghan Markle tried to exit royal life.
• The Duke of Sussex discusses the leaks in an interview that will air on 60 Minutes this Sunday.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and the rest of the world read a series of detailed press reports about their decision to step back from the royal family in 2020.

In a new interview scheduled to air on CBS's 60 minutes, the Duke of Sussex says he knows his own family placed many of those stories in news outlets.

As the pair planned an exit from the day-to-day responsibilities of being royals, Prince Harry tried to discuss the details and reasons for the move with other members of the royal family, he said.

"And every single time I've tried to do it privately, there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife," Prince Harry tells Anderson Cooper in a clip from the interview, which 60 Minutes will air on Sunday. "The family motto is 'never complain, never explain,' but it's just a motto."

Prince Harry appears in the interview to discuss "Spare," his soon-to-be-released memoir. He and Markle also recently appeared in "Harry & Meghan," a docuseries on Netflix that premiered in December.

In "Harry & Meghan," the younger son of King Charles III recounts an email exchange with his father in early 2020 in which he mentioned a potential move to Canada. In the exchange, the Duke said he also mentioned that he and Markle were also willing to give up their royal titles in order to make such a move. Less than a week later, that offer was reported in the press, he said in the docuseries.

That kind of leak was common, he said, as he tried to negotiate an exit from typical royal life for himself, Markle, and Archie, their son. The family now lives in California, where Markle gave birth to a daughter, Lilibet, in June 2021.

"They will feed or have a conversation with the correspondent, and that correspondent will literally be spoon-fed information and write the story," he said in the 60 Minutes clip. "And at the bottom of it, they will say that they've reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment, but the whole story is Buckingham Palace commenting."

"So when we're being told for the last six years 'We can't put a statement out to protect you,' but you can do it for other members of the family, there becomes a point when silence is betrayal," he said.