Streaming service Paramount+ has swooped for the Canadian rights to Prince Harry’s ITV interview.
The service will be the exclusive Canadian home for “Harry: The Interview,” which aired in the U.K. on Sunday night and drew an average audience of 4.2 million. In the interview, the Duke of Sussex speaks with journalist Tom Bradby about some of the issues broached in his new memoir, “Spare,” including his past drug use; the fractured relationship with his father, King Charles, and brother Prince William; and his campaign against the British tabloid press.
The 90-minute program, produced by ITN Productions, will debut on Paramount+ in Canada on Jan. 10, the same day “Spare” is published.
The Paramount+ acquisition is a coup for the streamer in Canada, where past royal interviews — such as Harry and wife Meghan Markle’s explosive Oprah interview in March 2021 — have generally landed on broadcasters such as Global.
In the ITV interview, Harry said it was “important to acknowledge” his drug-taking, which he details in the book, but side-stepped a question from Bradby about whether his taking cocaine as a member of the publicly-funded royal family was a matter of public interest, with British newspapers covering it in the early to mid 2000s.
The duke also insisted that he had not written his memoir with the intention of hurting his brother and father, despite the many intrusive and potentially damaging revelations within it. “Nothing I’ve done in this book or otherwise has ever been [with] any intention to harm them,” he told Bradby. But he claimed his family had “got into bed with the devil” by cooperating with the British press and suggested this was his opportunity to right the record.
Michael Jermey, ITV director of news and current affairs, said: “It is extremely rare for a member of the Royal Family to speak so openly about their experience at the heart of the institution. Tom Bradby’s interview with Prince Harry will be a program that everyone with an informed opinion on the monarchy should want to watch.”
Ian Rumsey, ITN Productions managing director and executive producer, added: “Harry’s version of events contains many elements we’ve never heard before, as viewers will see. It is a raw and intimate perspective on his relationships with the people closest to him and the moments that have shaped him.”
Harry’s interview on ITV was followed by a “60 Minutes” interview on CBS with Anderson Cooper, in which the prince covered much of the same ground.
K.J. Yossman contributed to this story.
