Prince Harry is using his voice to express his heartfelt sadness over the breakdown in relationships with his family and the Monarchy, following his decision to step down as a senior member of the royal family and subsequent interviews with the press about his and wife Meghan Markle’s experience as part of 'The Firm'.
Following the release of his and Markle’s hotly-anticipated docu-series, Harry & Meghan, which aired in December 2022, supporters of the royal couple have been waiting for Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, which was published on January 10.
However, in the lead up to the 416-page book’s publication date, information about the details inside the memoir came to light, after Reuters and several other media publications reportedly saw early copies.
Ahead of the book's official release, Prince Harry also sat down for two televised interviews to discuss his experience, as well as motivations behind writing the memoir – the first with Tom Bradby for ITV, and the second with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes on CBS News, both broadcast on January 8.
Spare: by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
From the contents of Spare to his comments during recent interviews with the press, here’s what you need to know about Prince Harry’s views and experiences of the Monarchy:
Prince Harry's relationship with Prince William and the reported physical 'attack'
Prince Harry details in his book that his older brother and heir to the throne, Prince William, knocked him to the floor during a 2019 argument over Meghan Markle.
In the book, Harry says the 2019 altercation with William took place at Harry's London home during which time the future King had called Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’ – a view which Harry says is similar to the ‘press narrative’ about his wife.
Describing the incident with William in detail, Harry continues: ‘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 claims William later returned, ‘looking regretful, and apologised’, and asked his younger brother not to tell Meghan that he had ‘attacked’ him.
During a televised interview for CBS, Anderson Cooper asked Harry whether he is currently in communication with William – to which the royal simply responded: 'currently, no'.
However, during ITV's Harry: The Interview, the royal was keen to clarify: 'I love my father. I love my brother. I love my family. I always do. Nothing of what I've done in this book or otherwise has ever been to harm them or hurt them.' He also said 'I would like to have my brother back.' However, he criticised his family's handling of the rift: 'Going back to the relationship between certain members of the family and the tabloid press, those certain members have decided to get into bed with the devil, to rehabilitate their image.'
During the same ITV interview, Bradby asked Harry what William would say about his decision to go public with his experiences of the Monarchy.
‘Wouldn’t your brother say to you, “Harry, how could you do this to me after everything we went through”. Wouldn’t that be what he would say?’ Bradby asks.
‘He would probably say all sorts of different things,’ Harry replies.
Spokespeople for King Charles and Prince William have declined to comment on the claims.
Prince Harry and his attendance at his father King Charles’ coronation
Prince Harry’s father, King Charles III, will officially become the Monarch following his coronation on May 6, 2023.
Despite rumours that Harry and his wife will be invited to the event, during his televised interview with ITV, he addresses whether or not he will attend his father's coronation.
When questioned by journalist Tom Bradby whether he will go to the event Prince Harry says: 'There's a lot that can happen between now and then. But, you know, the door is always open. The ball is in their court. There's a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it.'
Prince Harry and the Monarchy’s privacy
After his and Markle’s recent docu-series aired, many critics questioned why they had chosen to go public with their apparent fallout with wider members of 'The Firm'.
‘I don't know how staying silent is ever going to make things better,’ told Bradby in an interview for ITV. When Bradby asks why Harry was choosing to invade the privacy of his family – something he had ‘rallied’ against, he replies: ‘That will be the accusation from the people that don't understand or don't want to believe that my family have been briefing the press.’
Prince Harry and the death of Diana
Prince Harry spoke at length about his experience of his mother's death in 1997, both during the TV interviews and within Spare. In his memoir, he recalls his father breaking the news to him, saying: 'Mum has been seriously injured and has been taken to hospital, my dear son.' He continued, 'What I do remember with startling clarity is that I didn't cry. Not one tear. Pa didn't hug me.'
Harry also regretfully recalls his final interaction with his mother. 'I was running around with Willy and my cousins and didn't want to stop playing,' he writes. 'So I'd been short with her. Impatient to get back to my games, I'd rushed Mummy off the phone. I wish I'd apologised for it. I wished I'd searched for the words to describe how much I loved her. I didn't know that search would take decades.'
Speaking with ITV, Harry said: 'I lost a lot of memories on the other side of this mental wall, which I think is so relatable for so many people who’ve experienced loss… that inability to be able to drag the memories back over.'
He also told Cooper during the CBS interview that he didn't believe Diana was dead 'for a long time' and spoke of the role of the paparazzi in the accident – that has not been full acknowledged, in his opinion. He said: 'Everybody got away with it.'
Harry also revealed that he took psychedelic drugs to help him deal with the 'grief' and 'trauma' of his mother's death, using magic mushrooms and ayahuasca as 'medicine' to help 'clear the windscreen... the misery of loss'. Anticipating possible criticism, Harry clarified: 'I would never recommend people do this recreationally'.
Prince Harry on drugs
Who could forget the 'Harry's Drug Shame' front-page headline scandal? In his memoir Spare, the Prince has revealed that he did in fact take drugs as a teenager, but put the story itself down to royal spin.
Harry claims that his father's office allowed the newspapers to run the drug stories to make Charles look better: 'No more the unfaithful husband, Pa would now be presented to the world as the harried single dad coping with a drug-addled child.'
'Of course, I had been taking cocaine at that time,' he continues. 'At someone's house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line, and I'd done a few more since. It wasn't much fun, and it didn't make me particularly happy, as it seemed to make everyone around me, but it did make me feel different, and that was the main goal.'
He also wrote, 'I was a seventeen-year-old willing to try almost anything that would alter the pre-established order. At least, that's what I was trying to convince myself of.'
In his memoir, Harry has also spoken about using hallucinogens later in life. 'They didn't simply allow me to escape reality for a while, they let me redefine reality. Under the influence of these substances I was able to let go of rigid concepts, to see that there was another world beyond my heavily filtered senses, a world that was equally real and doubly beautiful–a world with no red mist, no reason for red mist. There was only truth.'
Prince Harry's agoraphobia
Harry reveals in his memoir that he used to be an agoraphobe, 'which was nearly impossible given my public role.' Prince William used to tease him about it: 'After one speech, which couldn't be avoided or cancelled, and during which I'd nearly fainted, Willy came up to me backstage. Laughing. "Harold! Look at you! You're drenched!"'
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
The royal claims that while Prince William 'never tried to dissuade' him from marrying Meghan, he did say he had some 'concerns' from early on in their relationship and told him: 'This is going to be very hard'.
In the same ITV interview, Harry says there was 'a lot of stereotyping that was happening, that I was guilty of as well, at the beginning' of his relationship with Markle - centred on the fact she was 'an American actress'.
'Some of the things that my brother and sister-in-law – some of the way that they were acting or behaving definitely felt to me as though unfortunately that stereotyping was causing a bit of a barrier to them really sort of, you know, introducing or welcoming her in,' he said.
He also said: 'My family helped to drive out Meghan', calling the royals 'complicit' in the 'pain and suffering' inflicted on his wife and himself.
Prince Harry on Prince Andrew
Prince Harry has become the first royal to publicly criticise Prince Andrew, who has been accused of sexual assault and linked with Jeffrey Epstein. Speaking with Bradby on ITV, Harry labelled it 'a shameful scandal', while in his book Spare, he writes: 'People have had plenty of reasons to complain about us, sex crimes weren’t one of them.'
Prince Harry as the 'spare'
Inspired by the well-know yet off-cited quote about aristocracy requiring an heir, and a spare, it's poignant for Prince Harry to choose to title his memoir Spare.
According to extracts reported by the Guardian newspaper, which was the first publication to obtain a copy, King Charles reportedly told the late Princess Diana on the day he was born: ‘Wonderful! Now you've given me an heir and a spare – my work is done.’
In its leaked extracts, the Guardian reports King Charles had stood between his two sons during a meeting a Windsor Castle following Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021. ‘Please, boys,’ Harry quotes his father as saying. ‘Don’t make my final years a misery.’
Prince Harry and a royal reconciliation
Speaking with Bradby on ITV, Prince Harry accused his family of 'getting into bed with the devil to rehabilitate their image' and said they had 'shown no willingness to reconcile up until this point'.
However, he went on to say that he is '100 per cent' sure that there could be a reconciliation between himself, Meghan and the royal family in the future, and that this would have a 'ripple through the world'. He also defended his choice to speak out: 'I'm not sure how honesty is burning bridges'.
Speaking with Cooper for CBS, Harry spoke more about a possible reconciliation with his family. 'The ball is very much in their court, but, you know, Meghan and I have continued to say that we will openly apologise for anything that we did wrong, but every time we ask that question, no one's telling us the specifics or anything,' he said. 'There needs to be a constructive conversation, one that can happen in private that doesn't get leaked.'
Prince Harry and his view of the Monarchy
During his ITV interview, Bradby asks whether Harry still believes in the Monarchy, to which he replies he does, yet when asked whether he will ‘play a part in its future’, the royal responds: ‘I don’t know.’
We will continue to update this article as more information comes to light.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
Clementina Jackson is the Fashion Editor at Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health UK, covering everything from celebrity style and catwalk trends to buzzy brands and the cult products you need to know about (and shop before they sell out). She also commissions first-person and long-form fashion features, oversees shopping content and tests out the latest industry innovations. Clementina previously worked as Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, during which time she profiled high-end designers, interviewed everyone from Priyanka Chopra to Jane Fonda, and launched the Cut To Size franchise to shine a light on size-inclusive fashion. During this time, she was also named as a PPA 30 Under 30 award winner. Having worked in journalism for more than six years, Clementina has also written for the likes of Harper’s Bazaar, Red, Vanity Fair, Condé Nast Traveller and Italy Segreta, covering everything from luxury travel, lifestyle and restaurants to photography and interiors.
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