Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir “Spare” will be released on January 10, 2023, but excerpts are already being dropped — and they’ve got some major bombshells!
Among his big revelations are his drug use, losing his virginity, the moment he found out his mother had passed, issues between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, altercations between Prince Harry and his brother Prince William and more.
The nicknames
Prince Harry uses nicknames in his book. He calls Prince William “Willy” and Prince William calls him “Harry”
Learning about his mom’s death
“Pa didn’t hug me. He wasn’t great at showing emotions under normal circumstances, how could he be expected to show them in such a crisis. His hand did fall once more on my knee and he said, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ That was quite a lot for him. Fatherly, hopeful, kind. And so very untrue.
[Dad] sat down on the edge of the bed. He put a hand on my knee. ‘Darling boy, Mummy’s been in a car crash.’ I remember thinking: Crash … OK. But she’s all right? Yes? I vividly remember that thought flashing through my mind. And I remember waiting patiently for Pa to confirm that indeed Mummy was all right. And I remember him not doing that.
I began silently pleading with Pa, or God, or both: No, no, no. ’Mummy was quite badly injured and taken to hospital, darling boy.’ He always called me ‘darling boy,’ but he was saying it quite a lot now. His voice was soft. He was in shock, it seemed.
‘They tried, darling boy. I’m afraid she didn’t make it.’ These phrases remain in my mind like darts in a board. He did say it that way, I know that much for sure. She didn’t make it. And then everything seemed to come to a stop.”
What King Charles said to his sons at Prince Philip’s funeral
Things were tense at the funeral for Prince Harry and Prince William’s grandfather, King Philip. In the book, Prince Harry claimed that at the funeral his father looked “up at our flushed faces” and allegedly told the brothers, “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.”
The secret meeting at Prince Philip’s funeral
Prince Harry held a secret meeting with his dad and his brother. “I looked at Willy, really looked at him, perhaps for the first time since we were little, taking in every detail: his familiar scowl, which had always been the norm in his dealings with me.” He said he told Prince William, “My dear brother, my archenemy, how did we come to this? I felt overwhelming tiredness. I wanted to go home. Willy, this was supposed to be our house. We were going to spend the rest of our lives here.”
Prince William then said “You left, Harold,” to which Harry said, “Yeah, and you know why.” But Prince William replied “Honestly no. Harold… not really.”
He blames William and Kate for that Nazi uniform costume
Prince Harry made headlines at the age of 20 when he dressed as a Nazi for a costume party. In the book, he alleged that Prince William and Kate Middleton were the ones who told him to wear it. “I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said. They both howled. Worse than Willy’s leotard outfit! Way more ridiculous! Which, again, was the point.”
On rumors of Prince Harry’s paternity.
He wrote this about what his father would say regarding the rumors he was not his real dad: “Pa liked telling stories, and this was one of the best in his repertoire. He’d always end with a burst of philosophizing … Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father? He’d laugh and laugh, though it was a remarkably unfunny joke, given the rumor circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt. One cause of this rumor was Major Hewitt’s flaming ginger hair, but another cause was sadism.
Never mind that my mother didn’t meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born.”
Prince William’s physical attack on Prince Harry
Prince Harry wrote that Prince William attacked him in 2019 during a confrontation. He alleged: “He set down the 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.”
What happened when Prince William and Kate, fans of Suits, met Meghan Markle for the first time
“When meeting my grandmother [Queen Elizabeth II], I’d made it clear — this is the queen. But when meeting my brother, it was just Willy, who loved Suits. I was baffled, until Willy and Kate explained that they were regular — nay, religious — viewers of Suits. Great, I thought, laughing. I’ve been worrying about the wrong thing. All this time I’d thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family, but now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph.
I’d said this to Willy so many times, and he’d always replied: ‘It might not happen, Harold! And you’ve got to be OK with that.’ Well, now I felt that it was going to happen and I told him so — but he still said to slow down. ‘She’s an American actress after all, Harold. Anything might happen.’”
His drug use
He admitted that he experimented with cocaine as a teen. “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.”
Losing his virginity
He said losing his virginity was a “inglorious episode with an older woman.” He wrote: “She liked horses, quite a lot, and treated me unlike a young stallion. Quick ride, after which she’d smacked my rump and sent me to grace. Among the many things about it that were wrong. It happened in a grassy field behind a busy pub.”
Prince William and King Charles were angry at him for defending Meghan Markle with his early statement
Prince Harry released a statement early on in his and Meghan’s relationship wherein he defended her. He wrote in the book: “Pa and Willy were furious. They gave me an earful. My statement made them look bad, they both said. Why in hell? Because they’d never put out a statement for their girlfriends or wives when they were being harassed.”
An incident between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle
He revealed something that happened between Meghan and Kate ahead of his and Meghan’s wedding. He said that Kate, who was pregnant or recently gave birth at the time, was upset about the timing of the wedding rehearsal and the flower girl dresses. Meghan said that Kate must have ‘baby brain’ because of her hormones, and this caused a huge blow out. Kate demanded an apology, and Meghan did apologize, but Prince William is said to not have accepted the apology, pointing a finger at Meghan and calling her ‘rude.’
The first pubic outing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had with Prince William and Kate Middleton
“The audience was keen, all four of us were having fun, the whole atmosphere was hugely positive. … ‘Here we go,’ I thought hopefully. Days later, controversy. Something about Meg showing support for #MeToo, and Kate not showing support — via their outfits? I think that was the gist, though who can say? It wasn’t real.
I think it had Kate on edge while putting her and everyone else on notice that she was now going to be compared to, and forced to compete with, Meg.”
On if he is circumcised
He revealed that both he and Prince William were circumcised. “There were countless stories in books, and papers (even The New York Times) about Willy and me not being circumcised. Mummy had forbidden it, they all said, and while it’s absolutely true that the chance of getting penile frostbite is much greater if you’re not circumcised, all the stories were false. I was snipped as a baby.”
