Prince Harry's explosive memoir is out. And so are the royal family's deep-kept secrets

Britain’s Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir ‘Spare’ landed on bookshelves across the globe on Tuesday, spewing the darkest royal secrets, controversies and conversations out in the open. The autobiography, titled 'Spare', tells the tale of Prince Harry, or the British monarchy’s “spare heir,” and the events he watched unfold during his time as a senior member of the UK’s royal family. Here, we take a look at some of the biggest takeaways derived from 'Spare', potentially the biggest royal book since 1992’s ‘Diana: Her True Story’.

In the book, Prince Harry chronicles the first time he flew back to the United Kingdom after stepping down as a royal in April 2021 for his grandfather Prince Philip’s funeral. He revealed that he had used the somber event as an opportunity to mend ties with his father and now-King Charles and his brother Prince William.

The time when King Charles and Prince Wiliam were 'ready for a fight'

“So, though I’d flown home specifically and solely for Grandpa’s funeral, while there I’d asked for this secret meeting with my older brother, Willy, and my father talk about the state of things. To find a way out,” he wrote, according to a copy of the book obtained by CNN.

Minutes into the private meeting, the prince realized that his father and brother had “come ready for a fight.”  “I tried to explain my side of things. I wasn’t at my best. For starters, I was still nervous, fighting to keep my emotions in check, while also striving to be succinct and precise,” he wrote. 

King Charles' 'unfunny' joke about Diana's affair

Prince Harry also recalled how King Charles would make jokes about his mother Diana’s affair with Major James Hewitt and would question if he really is the prince’s father. “‘Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father? Maybe your real father is in Broadmoor, darling boy!” Prince Harry wrote about his father, calling his joke “unfunny.” 

Addressing the rumors that suggested King Charles was not Prince Harry's father, the prince wrote: "One cause of this rumour was Major Hewitt’s flaming ginger hair, but another cause was sadism. Tabloid readers were delighted by the idea that the younger child of Prince Charles wasn’t the child of Prince Charles. Never mind that my mother didn’t meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born, the story was simply too good to drop."

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II

Prince Harry did not refrain from writing about one of the biggest losses in his life-the death of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II. Recounting how his father had called him in September 2022 to inform him that the deceased queen’s health “had taken a turn,” Prince Harry wrote about how he tried to connect with his brother to discuss their grandmother’s deteriorating condition. 

He later wrote about the time when he finally saw the Queen’s corpse in Balmoral Castle. “I braced myself, went in. The room was dimly lit, unfamiliar - I’d been inside it only once in my life. I moved ahead uncertainly, and there she was. I stood, frozen, staring. I stared and stared. It was difficult, but I kept on, thinking how I’d regretted not seeing my mother at the end. Years of lamenting that lack of proof, postponing my grief for want of proof. Now I thought: Proof. Careful what you wish for,” Prince Harry wrote.

Finding closure 

The memoir also sheds light on how the red-headed prince sought closure after the untimely demise of his mother Diana in a car crash in 1977. Prince Harry, who was 12 years old when his mother died, wrote how he visited the same tunnel in 2007 where Diana got involved in a fatal car accident. 

He revealed that he had asked his chauffeur to drive at “the exact speed Mummy’s car had supposedly been driving, according to police, at the time of the crash.” “I’d always imagined the tunnel as some treacherous passageway, inherently dangerous, but it was just a short, simple, no-frills tunnel,” Harry wrote, adding that there was “no reason anyone should ever die inside it.”

“I’d thought driving the tunnel would bring an end, or brief cessation, to the pain, the decade of unrelenting pain. Instead, it brought on the start of Pain, Part Deux,” he added. 

Fights and raging hormones

Prince Harry revealed that a comment made by his wife Meghan Markle did not sit right with Kate Middleton. Markle had allegedly told the Princess of Wales that she must have a “baby brain” after she had given birth. He then recounted a 2018 meeting with Prince William and Kate at Kensington Palace that aimed to solve any resentment and misunderstandings between the couples.

Prince Harry wrote that Kate demanded an apology from his wife and told her that “we’re not close enough for you to talk about my hormones!” Prince Harry then went on to write that his brother had called Meghan “rude” while pointing a finger at her, to which she responded, “Kindly take your finger out of my face.”

However, the takeaways mentioned are merely the tip of the royal iceberg that the prince has attempted to shatter through the explosive memoir. From anecdotes about being beaten up by his brother, to losing his virginity to a woman much older than him, Prince Harry left no questions unanswered, and spared Britain’s royal family no mercy in unraveling the stories that once stayed confined within the towering walls of Buckingham Palace.