Everything We Know So Far About Prince Harry’s TMI-Heavy Memoir ‘Spare’
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Before Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir, ‘Spare’, there was ‘A King’s Story’—the story of a man who, in his own words, had “all [his] life been the passive clay that [the press] had enthusiastically worked into the hackneyed image for a Prince Charming. Now it had whirled around and was bent upon demolishing the natural man who had been there all the time.”—Prince Harry’s great grandfather, King Edward VIII.
Harry would later resonate with the sentiments of the then-abdicate King: “The press creates; the press destroys.” Both share a history beyond royal lineage; both renounced royal duty for the sake of their wives, Wallis Simpson and Meghan Markle, who were both American divorcees. Both men, also despite their qualms with the media, would find the same invaluable to their hotly anticipated memoirs. But where they differ is the juicier tale.
After copies of ‘Spare’, intended to be released on 10th January, accidentally went on sale early in Spain, the internet has descended into speculation and vitriolic bedlam. While King Edward VIII’s memoir was received positively—the New York Times called the memoir a defence of the King’s own conduct, and was a bestseller that, according to the Telegraph, earned the Windsors a net around £3.5 million, Harry’s ‘Spare’ has already been judged by its start cover.
As an opinion on the CNN concisely put it, “Harry is not special—his is one of the commonest dramas of human nature.” This story is one of the age-old duel. The calling out over affairs of honour, the time-honoured culture of elite men. And there is no better place to look than London, to chart the history and significance of the duel. In defence of chivalry, the modern era saw the decline of swords and havoc, towards “shame culture”—it mattered less who was more victorious over time, rather, who was the more humiliated man.
This memoir and all its ceremony and spectacle have overtones of the brotherly duel. Prince Harry, understandably feels the need to call his brother, the heir to his spare to shame, to buttress his own honour.
Here’s what we know—and frankly, some things we really didn’t need to know:
“Beloved brother and archnemesis”. “There has always been competition between us, weirdly.” William at school made the cutting request to Harry, to pretend they didn’t know each other. Poor sparrow. [Insider]
Harry keeps a tally of bodies. Harry wantonly admits he killed 25 people while in Afghanistan. While he doesn’t feel good about the count, he claims he does not feel regret either. His time in the military was a journey of self discovery. Some have ayahuasca, others have guns and trenches 🤷🏾♀️. [Tatler]
The princes threw hands. Perhaps the most sensational reveal is of the physical altercation between Harry and William at Nottingham Cottage, as Harry details William grabbed “[him] by the collar, ripping my necklace and…knocked me to the floor” resulting in bruising and injuries. [CBS]
William and Kate decided on the nazi costume (between that and a pilot) for a “Native and Colonial” themed party (lol rich!)[Tatler]
Harry finds Willy’s hair loss “alarming” and much worse than his own. [Town & Country]
He admits to having a frostbitten “todger”(Brit slang for penis) at William and Kate’s 2011 wedding on return from Charity North Pole expedition a month prior, which he was encouraged to remedy with the same balm, he recalls in the moment, his mother used on her lips—TMI. [Page Six]
In the promotional interview with Anderson Cooper, he reveals he used psychedelics to cope with grief, and the war with himself that began in 1997. [CBS]
Harry believes Camilla, the Wicked Stepmother of his earlier years, is dangerous because she’s had an “image to rehabilitate”—the ‘other’ woman(Charles’ mistress), and she has a good (read: toxic, self-serving) relationship with the British press. [People
On one hand, this is an example of a man unashamedly bearing his heart, understandably, given the damage his life has caused him from before most of us Gen Zs were even born.
It begs the question though, whether it is exemplary if you were born one of the most privileged people in society, born into a pompous kind of duty, or is it peevishly whiny? I don’t believe that some negative reception to Harry’s “tell-all” is necessarily about finding an emotional man overbearing, but more so that we simply cannot relate to the qualms of this archaic institution, as much as he would like us to (Harry hopes that reconciliation between his family and the Sussex’s “will have a ripple effect across the entire world”).
In the end, Harry might learn the invaluable difference between being silent, and silenced.