The bombshell memoir that the world has been waiting for, Prince Harry’s “Spare,” has arrived.
“Spare” staunchly ignores royal protocol. With mild profanity and much passion, Harry reveals the true nature of the royals and his feelings about the monarchy, the institution that sealed his fate at birth, as the “spare” to his brother, William, the heir to the British throne. Harry dives into a life without privacy and grieves his mother, the late and beloved Diana, Princess of Wales, who died tragically in a 1997 car accident in Paris, chased by paparazzi.
Everywhere he turned, even in places he deemed sacred and private, the press followed him. Even as a young teenager, following the death of his mother just years before, he would receive harsh words from the press, labeled as a lazy, misbehaved ‘bad boy.’
As a teen, he and William often hung out in a basement nicknamed “Club H.” He was quickly branded as the “bad boy” of the Royal family, chastised and compared to William relentlessly, even as a kid. Harry regarded Club H as a place where he felt safe while grieving; even William felt safe enough there to talk about his mother. When the press found out about Club H, they deemed it druggie heaven.
Diana’s Death
Harry admits he spent a decade convincing himself that his mother was in hiding as a form of coping, because of Diana’s distaste for the invasive press and their nasty rhetoric. Years following her death, on a trip to Paris, Harry asks authorities to see photos of Diana dead at the scene of the crash. He noticed in photos that the paparazzi did nothing to help her while she was struggling, continuing to photograph her. “They’d hunted her like a pack of wild dogs,” Harry writes, “but I’d never dared to imagine that, like wild dogs, they’d also feasted on her defenseless body.” William and Harry had gone through the tunnel to learn that it wasn’t a dangerous route. Both wanted to pursue legal action against the paparazzi at the scene, but were talked out of it by the Palace.
Military Life
While serving in the British army, Harry was targeted by the Taliban, since the British press had leaked his location. Due to his popularity, he was taken out of war multiple times, one of the few places that made him feel the joys of being a normal person and was treated like everyone else. He was shocked to have found that peace while in war. He regards work as being one of the only things making him happy, but everywhere he felt at peace, the paparazzi found him.
Shortly following his time in the military, he felt lost as he was now a full-time royal, constantly in the public. He suffered several panic attacks before appearances. He becomes more aware of the greedy nature of the monarchy, and their need to appease the public so they wouldn’t want to shut them down.
Harry and William’s Competitive Relationship
From the start, Harry hints that he won’t go too easy on William in this book, poking fun at his hairline.
As children, William and Harry were fairly close but began to grow apart as teenagers. At school, William would ask Harry to pretend as though he didn’t know him, which translated into their life outside of school. As Harry became more advanced in his pilot career and within the army, he felt William increasingly becoming competitive.
William had broken out into a jealous rage when he heard Harry was permitted by the Queen to keep a beard for his wedding, as William hadn’t been allowed to keep his for his own wedding. It’s insinuated that the Queen always held William at a higher standard, and so there were instances where William wished he were in Harry’s shoes, with less expectations. Harry notes that William made a half-joke about shaving Harry’s beard after he drunkenly passed out.
To Harry, William was a confidante only in the most desperate times. They’d only have a quiet, tender moment every few years.
One of the most famous stories to come out of “Spare” is the brothers’ physical altercation in 2019 when William grabbed Harry by the collar and pushed him to the ground. Harry was left with scrapes and bruises from falling onto his back on top of the dogs’ food bowl.
Tension Between the “Fab Four”
After starting on the wrong foot, Harry, Meghan, William and Kate attempted to clear the air. After accusations that Meghan made fun of Kate’s changing “hormones” following childbirth and William wagging his finger in Meghan’s face calling her rude, the feud wasn’t entirely squashed, but the four never grew close.
Staff members were aware of the feud, and exacerbated it. William believed the media’s portrayal of Meghan and constantly warned Harry she was no good. On a later occasion when the four were figuring out who could’ve tipped the press about their feud, William admits he spoke about the issue to Charles and Camilla, in which the four found the answer.
Charles III and Camilla
Harry recalls touching childhood memories with his father. If one were to accidentally walk into his bedroom, one may see him doing headstands. He doesn’t steer away from revealing some of his father’s darker traits, too.
Shortly after Diana’s death, Charles noticed a need to uphold a positive public image, as he was seen as the infidelitous “bad guy.” Charles did whatever he had to for positive media attention towards him and his wife Camilla, even at the expense of his children.
In one instance, Harry reveals that Charles and Camilla took advice from spin doctors they hired, who figured it would be best to label Harry as a teen drug addict when he was caught smoking weed. Doing so would help alleviate negative press towards Charles. The British press repurposed old photos of Harry at a rehab center for charity, making it as though he was seeking rehab for himself.
Charles didn’t play favorites. He treated William and Harry the same, hiring communications teams to plant bad stories about both his sons. Harry had proof that reporters inside newsrooms admitted that Charles’ hires sold them out. After a confrontation by both William and Harry, Charles continued to defend his hire.
Meghan and the Media
British media outlets, which he calls out by name, claimed Meghan was almost “straight outta Compton” when she first made headlines. Harry was quick to defend her publicly, raising the eyebrows of Charles and William, as they hadn’t done the same to protect their wives. PR analysts of the Royal Family agreed that Meghan’s coverage was “unprecedented.”
As Meghan began to excel at her royal engagements around the world, Harry worried that it was dangerous, that she made being a royal look effortless. “This is how everything started,” he regards, with the media’s focus on his mother. Despite Meghan’s high approval, the British press continued to treat Meghan and her family extremely unfairly, pushing racist rhetoric and biased claims (without any evidence) against her.
After worsening press, the couple had reason to sue. Harry confided in Charles and William, who had sued the press prior. They deemed it a terrible idea, without giving a concrete reason. “You’d think we were suing a dear friend of theirs,” he says.
Both his father and the Queen hadn’t done anything to protect him and his family, Harry laments. He felt as though this wasn’t how a family should behave, and gained clarity that everything in the Palace was simply “for show.”
Some Juicy Moments
As for some juicy personal tidbits, Harry talks of getting frostbite on his penis from a trip to the North Pole right before his brother’s wedding, and smoking weed and watching “Inside Out” after his first date with Meghan. He also mentions that William and Kate were regular watchers of Meghan’s show “Suits,” before they’d met her.
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