Harry’s memoir gets leaked
LONDON: Prince Harry’s autobiography Spare is not due out until next week but it dominated headlines on Thursday after a Spanish-language version of the memoir mistakenly went on sale.
The book was hurriedly withdrawn from shelves in Spain but not before copies were obtained by media outlets, who pored over its contents — and its implications for Britain’s most famous family.
The blunder, despite a worldwide embargo until Tuesday, came after The Guardian newspaper’s US edition revealed on Wednesday night that it had seen a copy of the book and published key excerpts.
They include how Prince Harry was allegedly physically attacked by his older brother, Prince William, in a blazing 2019 row about his wife, Meghan.
Other revelations include how he was told of the death of his mother Princess Diana in a car crash in 1997, and how he received a message from her from beyond the grave via a woman with “powers”.
He also touches on his strained relationship with his father, King Charles III, and how he and Prince William pleaded with him not to marry his longterm mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles.
There are disclosures about his use of cocaine as a teenager, the “humiliating” loss of his virginity to an older woman in a field behind a pub and his time as a soldier hunting Taliban extremists.
The recollections feature an acknowledgement that he killed 25 people while serving as an Apache attack helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.
“It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me,” he wrote, likening hitting his targets to knocking “chess pieces” from a board.
The candid revelation could heighten fears about his safety, after he already flagged concerns about the withdrawal of his state-funded security following his move to the United States with Meghan in 2020.
But the immediate focus was on the escalation of his bitter feud with heir-tothe-throne William, 40, and whether the damage to their relationship and with his wider family could ever be repaired.
Prince Harry wrote that his fight with Prince William came after his brother called Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”.
The incident in 2019 allegedly saw Prince William tackle his younger brother to the ground as they argued.
“He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor,” said The Guardian, quoting from the book.
“I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me.”