Highlights from Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’

A Spanish-language version of
“Spare”, the much-awaited memoir of Britain’s Prince Harry, went
on sale in book stores in Spain on Thursday, days ahead of its
official launch date.
The book reveals details about Harry’s relationship with his
father, King Charles, his elder brother, Prince William, and
other members of the British royal family that have never
previously been published.
As is usual for the royal family, spokespeople for Charles
and William have declined to comment.
Following are some of the key details outlined in the book:
BRAWL WITH BROTHER
Harry says his brother William, now heir to the British
throne, knocked him to the floor during a 2019 argument at his
London home over Harry’s American wife Meghan. William called
Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”, Harry writes.
He says William grabbed him by the collar and knocked him to
the floor, where Harry says he landed on a dog’s bowl, cracking
it. He says he refused William’s challenge to hit back and that
his brother later apologised over the incident.
CAMILLA
Harry says he and Prince William had asked their father not
to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles, who is now Britain’s queen
consort. Nonetheless, he writes that both he and William ended
up wishing their father a happy marriage and had some sympathy
for their relationship.
“Despite the bitterness and sadness we felt in closing
another loop in the history of our mother, we understood this
was irrelevant.”
DRESSING AS A NAZI
Harry says he was encouraged by Prince William and his wife
Kate to go dressed as a Nazi to a fancy dress party in 2005, in
what he has described elsewhere as “one of the biggest mistakes
of my life”.
MAJOR HEWITT RUMOURS
Harry dismisses media rumours that he was the result of an
affair between Major James Hewitt and his mother Princess Diana
and suggestions that his father had often joked about not
knowing who Harry’s real father was. Harry says the idea is
absurd, given that his mother did not meet Hewitt until long
after he was born.
FIGHT OVER WEDDING VENUES
Harry claims the royal household dragged its feet over the
date and venue for his wedding with Meghan. He says that when he
consulted his brother about the possibility of marrying in
Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s Cathedral, William said he could
not marry there because they had been venues for the weddings of
Charles and Diana and of William and Kate respectively. Instead,
William suggested a village chapel near Charles’ home at
Highgrove House in southwest England. Harry and Meghan finally
got married at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in May 2018.
TAKING DRUGS
Harry says that when he was 17 he was offered a line of
cocaine at someone’s house and consumed the drug on several
other occasions, although he insists media reports suggesting he
was a drug addict were false and that he did not enjoy it.
“It wasn’t much fun and it did not make me feel especially
happy as it seemed to do to everyone else, but it did make me
feel different, and that was my main objective. I was a
17-year-old boy ready to try anything that altered the
pre-established order,” he writes.
Harry also recounts how, as a student at the exclusive Eton
College, he used to smoke cannabis in a bathroom at his house
while the Thames Valley police served as his bodyguards,
patrolling the exterior of the building.
SEEING A CLAIRVOYANT
Harry describes meeting a woman with “powers” who said she
could feel Princess Diana’s spirit. He says the woman was
recommended by friends and that, while he had his doubts about
her, as soon as he sat down “I felt an energy around her”.
“Your mother says that you are living the life that she
couldn’t live, the life she wanted for you,” Harry quotes the
woman as telling him.
ARCTIC TRIP
Harry describes how during a trip to the North Pole he
suffered from early stages of what appears to be frostbite,
including to his penis. He recounts telling his father about his
injuries at a dinner on the eve of William’s wedding.
“My father showed interest and sympathized with me when I
mentioned that my ears and cheeks had burned due to the cold. I
struggled to contain myself to not talk too much and tell him
that my penis had also been affected…”
AFGHANISTAN
Harry says he killed 25 people when serving as a helicopter
pilot in Afghanistan. He says he participated in six missions,
all of which involved deaths, but says he saw them as
justifiable as Taliban insurgents wanted to kill his comrades.
“It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did
it leave me ashamed. When I found myself plunged in the heat and
confusion of combat I didn’t think of those 25 as people. They
were chess pieces removed from the board, Bad people eliminated
before they could kill Good people.”