12th January, 2023
Prince Harry’s memoir ”Spare” sets sales record on first day
By Nehru Odeh
When King Charles 111 will be coronated on 16 May, the royals will be breaking a longstanding tradition as Prince Harry, who is currently basking in the glow that his memoir, Spare, has generated, will not be welcomed at the ceremony.
Harry’s book was released on January 10 and quickly became one of the fastest selling non-fiction books ever.
At the coronation ceremony, Princes William and Harry are expected to knee to “pay homage” before touching the crown and kissing the monarch’s right cheek.
However, in a major break with tradition, it has been reported that King Charles has cancelled that age-old act.
Initially, the King hoped to still invite his youngest son to witness the momentous occasion, but a new report suggests he has been forced to reconsider his plans.
“Only William will perform that role,” a source said. “If Harry does make it, he might be relieved to learn that he will not be required to kneel and pledge allegiance to his father.
“In a major break with tradition, Charles has scrapped the act of the royal dukes kneeling to “pay homage” before touching the crown and kissing the monarch’s right cheek. William will be the only royal to perform the tradition.”
This is a fall-out of the shock and outrage that the book has generated. Indeed, the Duke of Sussex left almost nothing unsaid about the royal family in the book, and spared no one in Spare. There are fears that Harry is not one the royals can trust any longer in the wake of the memoir, television rounds and recent Netflix documentary.
Following the criticism levelled against his family in the memoir, some royals, especially Prince Edward and Princess Anne, have baulked at the thought of spending time with him since they can no longer guarantee if conversations at the ceremony won’t end up in the paperback edition of the tell-it-all book.
His family have reportedly been taken aback and hurt by the level of detail he has divulged to the public about their lives.
“There have been discussions among the family, including Edward and Anne. They do not want private conversations at the coronation making it into the paperback edition of Spare.”
The source explained the family expect the Sussexes will politely provide a reason not to attend, even if they were invited.
The Duke of Sussex launched an attempted charm offensive this week, appearing on US talkback shows mocking royal protocol to promote his bestselling memoir, Spare.
But he has dodged questions about whether he will attend this year’s coronation. During the publicity blitz to promote his book, the Duke of Sussex told Tom Bradby that ‘a lot can happen between now and then’ when asked if he will go to see his father crowned in May.
Speaking to Bradby, Harry said he’d be open to reconciliation and even returning to a partial royal role, on the condition he could have ‘frank’ conversations with his family which would stay private.
‘I don’t know whether they’ll be watching this [interview] or not, but, what they have to say to me and what I have to say to them will be in private, and I hope it can stay that way,’ he said, noting he doesn’t want ‘frank discussions [to] leak out’.
The comments have been labelled ironic given all the private moments Harry has shared in his memoir. “The irony is there for all to see, apart from Harry himself it seems. There was very little [trust] before these latest scenes, but there is no trust left at all for Harry to be brought into the fold.”
In his controversial book, Harry reveals a stream of sensational claims and accusations that ruffled feathers and shocked the sensibilities of many. One of the most striking claims is how he was physically attacked by his brother William.
Harry claims his brother grabbed his collar, ripped his necklace and knocked him to the floor at his London cottage. The book sets out an argument between the pair, which Harry claims was sparked by comments made by William about Meghan.
He describes the incident with graphic details: “He set down [a glass of] water, called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.
“I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”
Harry also writes that following the death of his mother Princess Diana, he and his brother begged their father not to marry Camilia, now Queen Consort. Harry alleges that he pondered whether she would one day be his “wicked stepmother”, but that he and his brother were willing to forgive her in “their hearts” if she could make King Charles happy.
The Duke of Sussex also describes how his sadness over the death of his mother led to him seeking help from a woman who “claimed to have powers. “Your mother says that you are living the life that she couldn’t live,” Harry says the woman told him. “You’re living the life she wanted for you.”
In the book, Harry also says his brother was critical of Meghan with William describing her as “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”. Harry says his brother was “parrot[ing] the press narrative” as the confrontation escalated.
Harry reveals in the book how at 17 he lost his virginity to an older woman in a field behind a pub. He says it was a humiliating” experience, during which the woman treated him “like a young stallion”. He continues, “I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and sent me away.”
The Duke of Sussex also says he was offered a line of cocaine at someone’s house when he was 17 and admits taking the drug on several other occasions, although he did not enjoy it.
He writes: “It wasn’t much fun and it did not make me feel especially happy as it seemed to do to everyone else, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective.
“I was a 17-year-old boy ready to try anything that altered the pre-established order.”
He also recounts smoking cannabis in a bathroom at Eton College while a pupil, as the Thames Valley Police officers serving as his bodyguards patrolled the exterior of the building.
Harry also William did not like having him at Eton. Harry claims William said this to him when he was about to start school at Eton College. “You don’t know me Harold. And I don’t know you.”
Harry says his brother explained to him “’that during his first two years there, Eton had been a sanctuary’. That was without the burden of a little brother who would bother him with questions or stick his nose in his social circle,” Harry says. He then says he told William “not to worry”. He claims to have said to his brother: “I will forget I know you.”
Harry also writes in the memoir that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan in 2012-13. He says he participated in six missions, all of which involved deaths, but saw them as justifiable.
“It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it leave me ashamed,” he writes. “When I found myself plunged in the heat and confusion of combat I didn’t think of those 25 as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, bad people eliminated before they could kill good people.”