As extracts from Harry's memoir are released the Herald looks at the most shocking. Photo / Getty Images
As extracts from Harry's memoir are released the Herald looks at the most shocking. Photo / Getty Images
Prince Harry’s highly anticipated memoir Spare is yet to hit shelves but because of an accidental early release in Spain this week many media outlets - including the Telegraph and the Guardian - have managed to get their hands on a copy.
As they release extracts from the book it’s clear the memoir will be one full of shocking revelations and it seems Harry hasn’t held back on making accusations about his time in the royal family and the experiences he and his wife Meghan Markle had as working royals.
From an alleged physical attack by Prince William, a bitter argument between Kate, Princess of Wales and Meghan due to a “hormone” related comment and even a recollection of his time serving as a member of the British Army, the Herald looks at the 10 most shocking revelations from the book so far.
1. Harry details shock physical altercation with William
The brothers have had a fractured relationship since Harry resigned from royal duties in 2020. Photo / AP
In what may be the most shocking account detailed in the memoir, Harry has claimed William “knocked me to the ground” during a heated argument.
The Telegraph reported Harry writes in the book that the Prince of Wales, “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”. Harry claimed the attack left him with visible injuries to his back.
Harry said he didn’t tell Meghan at first – opting to call his therapist instead - but finally did tell her when she noticed scratches on his back. She “wasn’t that surprised, and wasn’t all that angry. She was terribly sad,” he said.
2. Harry’s Afghanistan war kill tally
Prince Harry at an observation post in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2008. Photo / John Stillwell, Pool, Anwar Hussein Collection, WireImage
The Duke of Sussex said his kill tally left him neither proud nor ashamed, adding at the time it was simply his job as a soldier. He did not see his victims as “people” but rather “chess pieces” that had to be taken off the board.
“So my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me,” he writes.
3. Harry calls William his ‘arch nemesis’
Prince Harry brands Prince William his “arch nemesis” in his new book - the most brutal attack on his brother yet. Photo / AP
The brothers have reportedly had a fractured relationship since Harry and Meghan resigned from royal duties in 2020 but in Harry’s most brutal attack on William yet, he has called him his “arch nemesis”.
Good Morning America anchor Michael Strahan revealed the quote during a sneak peek from his yet-to-be aired interview with Harry. Sitting down with the prince he says: “There’s a quote in your book where you refer to your brother as your ‘beloved brother and arch nemesis’. Strong words. What did you mean by that?’”
Harry is seen looking emotional as he nods, before replying: “There has always been this competition between us, weirdly”.
4. Harry implicates Kate in infamous royal scandal
Prince Harry appeared on the front page of the Sun in 2005. Photo / The Sun
An image of then-20-year-old Harry dressed as a Nazi soldier with a swastika emblazoned on his arm at a party was leaked to a British tabloid, causing a public outcry in 2005 and now the Prince has claimed Kate and William encouraged him to wear the costume.
In what he has described as “one of the biggest mistakes of my life”, Harry claims William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, advised him to dress up as a Nazi for a party in 2005 and “howled with laughter” when they saw him in the costume.
5. Kate’s fury at Meghan over ‘baby brain’ slur
It's understood Harry will write about the rumoured row between Meghan and Kate. Photo / Getty Images
There has been wide speculation surrounding the relationship of the two sisters-in-law especially after Meghan claimed during her 2021 interview with Oprah that Kate made her cry before her wedding to Harry and it’s expected Harry will address the argument between the two in Spare.
Kate, who gave birth to her third child Prince Louis a month before Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, was reportedly upset. But Meghan was also supposedly offended because she was later reprimanded for her words.
6. Harry snapped at Meghan in ‘cruel’ fight
Harry claims he snapped at Meghan in a cruel fight. Photo / Netflix
After watching the couple’s six-part bombshell docuseries, Harry & Meghan on Netflix, it’s clear they are very much in love. Never ones to shy away from PDA moments, it’s almost unbelievable they could ever fight.
“Maybe the wine went to my head. Maybe the weeks of battling the press had worn me down. For some reason, when the conversation took an unexpected turn, I became touchy,” he wrote in his highly anticipated memoir.
“Then angry. Disproportionately, sloppily angry.”
7. William and Harry’s desperate plea to Charles
Harry and William reportedly begged Charles not to marry Camilla. Photo / Getty Images
Little is known about Harry and William’s relationship with Camilla but it seems that is about to change as reports from the Sun claim Harry writes in his book that he and William once begged Charles not to marry the now Queen Consort.
Admitting he was unsure if Camilla would one day be his “wicked stepmother”, Harry claimed he and his brother were willing to forgive her in “their hearts” if she could make their father happy but “begged” Charles not to marry her after the death of their mother Princess Diana.
8. Harry reveals Charles’ crass joke to Diana
Charles and Diana with Harry outside the Lindo Wing following his birth. Photo / Getty Images
The Duke of Sussex claimed the then-Prince of Wales told Diana: “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare - my work is done.”
He made the claim while he was explaining the title of the bombshell autobiography.
9. Harry recalls relationship with older woman
17 year old Prince Harry. Photo / Getty Images
It seems nothing is off limits in Harry’s memoir as the Sun has reported the Prince reveals how he lost his virginity to an older woman who treated him like a “young stallion”.
Recalling a relationship he had with the unnamed older woman when he was only 17 years old and attending Eton College in Windsor, Harry says she took his innocence behind a “very busy pub”.
It has been suspected the woman could have been Liz Hurley however she denied the claims last year telling the Times: “Not me. Not guilty. Ha!” She added: “No. Not me. Absolutely not.”
10. Harry’s spiritual conversation with Princess Diana
Harry and Diana when he was a young child. Photo / AP
Harry was a 12-year-old child when his mother died in 1997 so it’s understandable her death and impact is a prevailing theme in his soon-to-be-released memoir. In one touching moment he shares in the book, Harry recalls a conversation that made him realise his mother is still with him even now.
Speaking to his late mother through a “woman with powers”, the father of two says the woman told him, “You’re living the life she couldn’t. You’re living the life she wanted for you.”
Harry, dubious of “humbuggery” when he first sat down with the woman, writes he immediately felt an “energy around her” that brought him to tears.
