Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir, Spare, was recently released on Jan 10th, 2023. According to Forbes, “Spare sold more than 1.4 million copies on its release day.” One week after its debut, 629,300 copies of Spare had sold in just the U.S. alone. Spare is part of a four-book deal the prince has with Penguin Random House. Spare follows the release of Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s documentary on Netflix where they told their truth and aired their grievances with the British press, a sentiment which Harry continued with his tell-all memoir.
Background
Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, revealed to the world that they were stepping down as working royals in January 2020. The couple announced it via an Instagram post. The decision was met with a lot of controversies. It was a decision that many didn’t understand and were confused by. It was revealed in Harry and Meghan’s documentary that the British press and their treatment of the Duchess are what pushed them to leave. Over the years, British tabloids like Daily Mail and The Sun published works that painted Meghan in an unsavory light and included blatant racism and misogyny. When Harry and Meghan’s relationship was publicly announced, the Daily Mail claimed Meghan was “almost straight out of Compton.”
The mistreatment continued throughout Meghan’s time as a working royal and ultimately was the reason why both Harry and Meghan left the royal family. According to Harry, the British press and even the royal family claimed that Meghan was difficult and that being harassed by the press is a normal part of being a royal. However, Prince Harry fights back against these claims in Spare, where he highlights stories throughout his life when the press has hounded him, his family, friends, ex-girlfriends, and even his mother.
About the book
Spare kicked off with an account of a meeting that took place after Prince Phillip’s funeral between Prince Harry and his father and brother. Outside Frogmore Cottage, where he lived with his wife and son before leaving the U.K and the royal family, Prince Harry was questioned as to why he left the royal family. It seemed as though his father and brother were ready for a fight. Prince Harry reiterated that it was about the British media, their relationship with “the Institution” or the royal family, and their treatment of those in the royal family, particularly Meghan in recent years. Spare provides a look into Prince Harry’s life from 1997 until the present and the ways the press and being in the royal family, and specifically being “the spare,” have altered the course of his life. It is split into three parts beginning with the death and funeral of his mother, Princess Diana, who was chased by paparazzi to her death, and ends with Harry sharing how the media led him and his wife to flee the U.K.
the tea
Maybe people, including myself, picked up Prince Harry’s memoir in hopes of finding out any drama about the royal family. Especially in light of Harry and Meghan’s recent documentary and their past interview with Oprah Winfrey, where they revealed and alluded to the fact that there’s been some problems/tension between them and other members of the royal family. And to keep it real, Prince Harry spilled all the tea (some of which we didn’t ask for).
Pa
Prince Harry not only offered an inside look into the royal family, but he provided a look into the intricate relationships he has with each member. In Spare, Prince Harry shows a side of Prince Charles, now King Charles, or loving called “Pa,” the public has never seen before. In the majority of peoples eye’s, King Charles is typically seen as a villain due to his treatment of Princess Diana. However, Prince Harry shared stories about Charles playing with him and William as kids and how Charles would always be there to put him to bed which provided a rather humanizing view of him. Harry also shared that Prince Charles would refer to him as “his darling boy” and how he struggled with physical affection, most likely due to his upbringing, and would leave Harry letters depicting how proud of him he was.
Prince Harry also shared with viewers that Prince Charles often failed to protect him and later Meghan from the vicious treatment of the press. Spare shared many of Harry’s scandals and run-ins with the press, and while Prince Harry would wish his father would allow him to speak out and rebuke what they say, Prince Charles would often tell him to ignore them, and that the press comes with the “job.”
The other woman
Camila Parker-Bowles is another royal figure whom many aren’t fond of and is known by many, including Prince Harry and Prince William, as the “other woman” in Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ marriage. Prince Harry cited that he and his brother told their father that they didn’t want him to marry the now Queen Consort and that their being together was enough. Prince Charles ultimately didn’t take their advice and ended up marrying Camila in 2005.
In a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, Prince Harry was seen calling Camila dangerous, saying she was desperate to fix her image. Camila wishes to move away from her “other woman” persona and is often working with the press to do so by selling them stories, often about her stepchildren. In another promotional interview with ITV, Harry shared the fact that Camila “leaked one of her early conversations with William,” though it was claimed that it was her former assistant that did so. In Spare, Prince Harry shockingly revealed, “I had complex feelings about gaining a step-parent who, I believed, had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar.” Prince Harry also shared that Camila often didn’t try to build a relationship with him, since she most likely felt as though she needed to win over the heir instead of the spare.
willy
The confessions about Prince William are most likely the most shocking of the book. Prince Harry showed how badly the dynamic of being the heir and spare damaged his relationship with his brother. As a young man, Prince Harry spent 10 years in the British army and served in Afghanistan. He was also an Apache helicopter pilot for around four months. Prince Harry highlighted how his brother often felt jealous because he had been “reduced” to a search and rescue pilot because being heir to the British Monarchy meant he wasn’t allowed to be in an active war zone. William was often angered by the things Harry was allowed to do that he wasn’t. For example, Prince Harry was allowed to keep his beard for his wedding while Prince William wasn’t.
Marrying Meghan is another thing that caused a rift between the brothers. First, William believed it was too early for him to propose to Meghan, and her being an “American actress” made her an unserious prospect even though he and Kate were reportedly huge fans of Meghan’s show, Suits. Harry later shared that a physical altercation took place between him and his brother over his wife in 2019. Prince William was echoing what the press had been saying about Meghan, by calling her “rude,” “abrasive,” and “difficult.” Prince Harry shared that he was disappointed William was repeating the lies that were being said about his wife. William claimed that he was just trying to help his brother out and later end up pushing Prince Harry to the ground and asking him to hit him back.
CONCLUDING thoughts
I highly recommend Spare to those who haven’t read the book yet. Though mainly people will go read Spare for the drama, it’s still an incredibly well-written book that humanizes people that aren’t seen as regular people. It’s a book where though the circumstances may seem ridiculous, it’s a very human story. It’s about one’s story with death, grief, heartbreak, and most importantly love; it’s one many can relate to.