Patti Davis, the 70-year-old daughter of former President Ronald Reagan, is opening up about the ‘grief’ she felt after releasing her 1992 memoir titled The Way I See It. In the book, which she called a ‘mistake,’ Davis spoke about her dysfunctional family, which included shots at her ‘distant’ father and ‘cruel’ mother.
In an interview with TODAY, she talked about the ‘brutal’ hate and ‘death threats’ she received after releasing the memoir. And while the stories told in the book were true, she regretted writing the book – joking that viewers and fans should read some of the other books she has written in the years since.
“You don’t feel that you are taking up space. You don’t feel that you matter,” she said of being in the First Family – the family of the President. “ And it’s human nature to want to feel that you matter so you think, ‘Well, if I just sort of open the floodgates and tell everything, then I’ll take up space, then I will matter.”
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The comments come just two days after Patti Davis published an op-ed in the New York Times – which she titled “Prince Harry and the Value of Silence.” The op-ed was written in response to Prince Harry and the release of his newest memoir titled Spare, in which he bashes the Royal Family’s treatment of him.
In the op-ed, she talked about the importance of silence, reflection, truth, and learning to look at the bigger picture – opposed to just your story. She explained how part of her regret 40 years ago is tied to the realization that not all truths need to be shared with the world – especially those that are damning.
“People are always going to be curious about famous families, and often the stories from those families can resonate with others, give them insight into their own situations, even transcend time since fame flutters at the edges of eternity. But not everything needs to be shared, a truth that silence can teach,” she wrote.
In regards to Harry, she was taken aback by his repeated use of ‘my truth’ and ‘our truth’ – when speaking of his wife, Meghan Markle. “As I said in this op-ed, that’s a really narrow way of looking at things, and I did it, too. ‘This is my truth.’ But the full story is other people’s truths also,” she continued to explain.
Patti Davis Attempted to Repair Relationship With Father Before He Passed Away
One of the several books Patti Davis has published over the past 40 years is a 2021 memoir titled Floating in the Deep End. In the book, she talked about reconnecting with her father, Ronald Reagan, in the decade between being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1994 and passing away in 2004.
She talked about that experience during her TODAY interview on Monday. “I’m not going to sugarcoat things, we never did become a close, cohesive family, but I think that’s part of it,” she explained, adding she had to accept that her family was ‘fractured’ and it ‘was never going to be the Brady Bunch.’
She was also asked if she feels Prince Harry might one day feel the same way about his memoir and downfall with his family. “I think the only way you do it is to change within yourself. It requires some reflection, it requires some silence, some stepping back,” she said, though there will always be a void.
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Patti Davis married Paul Grilley in 1984, but they got divorced six years later without children and Davis hasn’t been married since. Meanwhile, Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018 and the couple shares two children together – three-year-old Archie Harrison and one-year-old Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana.