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Prince Harry’s infamous memoir, ‘Spare’
Prince Harry, aka the Duke of Sussex and the son of the reigning King Charles III of the United Kingdom, had his long-awaited memoir, ‘Spare,’ officially released on January 10, 2023. It has given the everyday citizen a very intimate look into his privileged and painful past and present.
He gives a very personal and detailed version of events
The memoir proves to be a no holds barred record of his ‘Megxit,’ or 2020 departure from Royal life with his American actress and wife, Meghan Markle. But there is much, much more. Let’s take a look at the fifteen most shocking revelations from his very personal and detailed version of events.
15. King Charles III allegedly called his son, Harry, his ‘Spare’
Harry’s explanation of his memoir’s title leaves no one off limits, even his father, the King. The Duke of Sussex claimed his father, the then Prince of Wales, told his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, upon his birth: “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare, my work is done!”
14. Harry admits to illegal drug use![]()
The Duke of Sussex admits to taking illegal drugs: cocaine, magic mushrooms, and cannabis. He wrote that the cocaine use was “not fun and it did not make me feel as happy as it seemed to make others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main gain. To feel. To be different.”
13. Harry reveals the nicknames of the two brothers
In his memoir, Harry reveals the nicknames of the two brothers: Willy for Prince William and Harold for Prince Harry. (Although Harry’s real name is Henry.)
12. Prince William allegedly had issues with Meghan Markle from the start![]()
Harry recounts that in an argument between the two brothers, Prince William allegedly called American Meghan Markle “rude,” “difficult” and “abrasive.”
11. Prince William pointed his finger in Meghan Markle’s face
Harry recounts in his memoir that during an argument between William and Meghan, William pointed a finger at her, saying: “Well, it’s rude, Meghan. These things are not done here.” To which Meghan responded: “If you don’t mind, keep your finger out of my face.”
10. Harry lost his virginity to an older woman behind a pub
In a detailed story, the Duke of Sussex recounts how he lost his virginity at 17 years old to an older woman while attending Eton College, in Windsor, behind a “very busy pub.” He says the woman treated him like “a young stallion.”
9. Harry replicated the late Princess Diana’s last journey through Paris tunnel
While visiting Paris for the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final, Harry had his driver take him through the Pont de Alma tunnel in Paris, replicating the tragic last journey of his mother, Princess Diana, from 20 years earlier in 1997.
8. Harry claims to have received a message from the late Princess Diana![]()
The Duke of Sussex writes: “a woman who claimed to have powers” received a message from his late mother, Princess Diana, saying he was “living the life she couldn’t, the life she wanted for you.”
7. The Princes Harry and William had a physical altercation
Harry writes in his memoir that a physical altercation ensued between the brother princes. Harry explains that his older brother William, the Prince of Wales: “grabbed me by the collar, ripped my necklace, and knocked me to the floor.”
6. Harry explains who really made who cry before the wedding![]()
Harry claims Meghan upset Kate with a comment stating she must have “baby brain” from the then-recent birth of Prince Louis. Harry furthers that Meghan’s heavy reprimand from William and Kate for her inappropriate comment caused the infamous sister-in-law fallout before the wedding, leaving the American bride in tears.
5. Harry believed Camilla would be his “wicked stepmother”
Harry claims that he and William feared Camillia would become their “wicked stepmother,” and both begged their father not to marry her after the death of their mother.
4. Then Prince Charles pleaded for his sons to reconcile at his father’s funeral![]()
At his father’s funeral, Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, Charles begged his sons to reconcile, saying: “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery,” according to Harry’s memoir.
3. Harry claims the Prince and Princess of Wales laughed at his 2005 Nazi costume
In 2005, Harry dressed as a Nazi for a Halloween party, sparking worldwide outrage. Harry claims William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, “howled with laughter” when they saw his costume and encouraged him to wear the Nazi costume instead of a pilot’s uniform.
2. Harry reveals his kill number while serving in Afghanistan![]()
It is widely known that Harry served as an Apache helicopter pilot in the British Army, but the lives taken by the Duke of Sussex were not publicly known during his time in Afghanistan. Harry has clarified this in his memoir: “so my number is 25,” he writes.
1. Harry got frostbitten in a delicate place
In an incredibly intimate anecdote, Harry recounts in his memoir how during a trip to Antarctica before William’s marriage, he was frostbitten by his male member, which he further explains was circumcised. Details we can only imagine his family is thrilled to have in the public domain.
Harry and the royal family: Reconciliation near impossible
Prince Harry claims he had no intention of damaging the British royal family with his autobiography, but reconciliation now seems impossible after he painted a critical picture of his relatives and settled decades-old scores.
“I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back,” he said in an interview with UK channel ITV prior to Tuesday’s publication of his memoir “Spare”, adding he was “100 percent” convinced a reconciliation could happen.
But no one, including Harry, has been spared in the drama surrounding the book’s release.
In the memoir, Harry admits his adolescence was marked by drugs and alcohol and his decision to air his family’s secrets in public has seen his popularity plunge in his homeland.
Plenty of ink is also spilled on attacking his father King Charles III, brother William, stepmother and now Queen Consort Camilla and his sister-in-law Kate.
Charles is due to be crowned on May 6, but “I can’t really see how” a family reconciliation is possible, Pauline Maclaran, a professor at London’s Royal Holloway University and author of a book on the monarchy, told AFP.
“He’s come out with so many things that are obviously offensive to members of his family, personal details that many people are arguing he didn’t need to put across,” she said.
“If he had any empathy, or indeed compassion, which is supposed to be at the root of the Archewell foundation (created by Harry and his wife Meghan Markle), it’s kind of gotten lost in all this,” she added.
Harry recounts how his father did not embrace him as he broke the news of the death of his mother Diana, when the prince was just 12 years old, instead leaving him alone in his room.
The king was “not cut out” to be a single parent, Harry claims.
William the ‘arch-nemesis’ ;
But most of his vengeance is saved for his “beloved brother, my arch-nemesis” William.
Presented as bad-tempered, Harry claims William never gave his wife Meghan a chance, considering her to be “rude and abrasive”.
Things came to a head during a 2019 argument in which Harry claims his brother threw him to the ground, smashing a dog bowl.
Harry also describes a life-long rivalry between William “the heir” and himself, “the spare”, laying bare the brutal reality of royal hierarchy.
He also accuses his mother-in-law Camilla, demonised for years by the tabloid press but now relatively popular, of having played the “long game” and waged “a campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the Crown”.
Within the book’s pages lie secrets large and small.
We learn that Queen Elizabeth II asked Meghan, during their first meeting, what she thought of Donald Trump, then a candidate for the White House.
Harry reveals that after he moved out of Clarence House, a royal residence in London, Camilla transformed his room into a dressing room, to which he took offence.
The prince said he learned of the death of his grandmother Elizabeth II in September on the BBC website, and that he travelled alone to Scotland to be by her side as he had not been told that his relatives had gone by private plane.
Family ‘divide’
Harry admitted he had not spoken to his brother and father “for quite a while”, and ruled out returning to work for the royal family.
He similarly declined to say whether he would attend his father’s coronation.
“The divide couldn’t be greater before this book,” he has said.
The list of acknowledgements takes up two full pages at the end of his memoir, but no member of the royal family is listed.
Instead, he namechecks “all the professionals, medical experts and coaches for keeping me physically and mentally strong over the years”.
His reliance on professionals has led the king, Camilla and William to believe that Harry has been “kidnapped by a cult of psychotherapy”, and therefore any attempts at reconciliation will fail, according to royal sources quoted by The Independent newspaper.
British tabloid The Sun also said he had crossed “a red line” by going after Camilla. ;
Buckingham Palace has responded to the publication of his memoirs, as well as to the highly critical documentary released last month on Netflix, with a stony silence.
