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Prince Harry’s tell-all new book ‘Spare’, to be released in 2023

October 27, 2022

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Prince Harry’s memoir finally has a release date. It will be published on January 10 – almost exactly three years to the day since Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced their intention to “step back” from their roles as senior members of the British royal family. , in one of the institution’s most publicized upheavals in decades.

The book will be titled ‘Spare’ – in a possible reference to Harry’s role growing up as third in line to the throne, behind his father, Charles, now King Charles III, and older brother, William, now Prince of Wales.

On social media, observers immediately focused on the title. “The Power and Pathos of a Word” said Peter Hunt, former BBC Royal Correspondent.

Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan to relinquish their Royal Highness titles

In making the announcement on Thursday, publisher Penguin Random House touted the book as a “historic publication” written with “raw and unflinching honesty.” He has been described as a “say it all”.

But following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and signs of a possible rapprochement between Harry and the Royal Family following their dramatic split in 2020 and his subsequent move to the US, questions have emerged over the revelation of the contents of the book will be really .

On September 10, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, made a rare joint appearance with the Prince and Princess of Wales. (Video: The Washington Post)

Buckingham Palace declined to comment through a spokesperson when contacted by The Washington Post.

In a promotional website launched Thursday, the publishing house said the book will be released in 15 languages, including French, Polish and Chinese, in addition to English. It will also be released as an audiobook, read by Harry himself.

The announcement is sure to draw mixed reactions in the UK, where Harry, once a senior member of the royal family, drew the ire of parts of the British public for his high-profile breakup with Buckingham Palace and the superb allegations he and Meghan have made against the Royal Family, particularly those contained in an interview last year with Oprah Winfrey.

Among them: that when Meghan was pregnant with her first child – a son she and Harry later named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor – a family member sparked “concerns and conversations about the darkness of her skin at His birth”.

Since then, Harry and Meghan have signed lucrative deals with media powerhouses like Netflix and Spotify from their home in Santa Barbara, California, revealing more – but, many suspect, not all – about their time as family members. royal and about Harry’s childhood. .

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Of all these projects, Harry’s memoir has sparked the most feverish speculation. It was announced in July 2021, with an expected release date of “late 2022”. At the time, Harry said in a press release that he was looking forward to sharing “a first-hand account of my life which is accurate and entirely truthful” – a possible dig at the British tabloids, with which he and Meghan engaged in a years-long legal battle. on allegations of privacy violations, among others.

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But the release date has been pushed back to next year after Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, died aged 96 in September. Some have speculated that Harry grew increasingly uncomfortable with the book’s possible ramifications on the royal family.

At the Queen’s funeral, he and Meghan projected a united front with other members of the Royal Family. According to the Telegraph, royal commentator Tina Brown said earlier this month that she believed the book would “not see the light of day”.

It’s clear the book will go ahead, but the announcement of its title and release date is sure to fuel speculation about its contents, perhaps to the delight of its publisher.

William Booth contributed to this report.