Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ gets critical mauling, condemned as ‘despicable work of malice’
- Revelations such as Prince William allegedly pushing Harry; how he lost his virginity, took drugs and killed in Afghanistan received condemnation and derision
- The book is the latest hostile blast from Harry and wife Meghan after they quit royal duties and moved to the US in 2020, cashing in on their royal connections
Prince Harry on Friday faced a backlash in the UK and beyond over his memoir Spare, with criticism from the media, commentators, army veterans and even the Taliban, as Buckingham Palace kept silent on the widely leaked contents.
Days before the official publication on Tuesday, disclosures from the book dominated headlines and airwaves after a Spanish-language version of the memoir mistakenly went on sale in Spain.
Revelations such as how heir to the throne Prince William allegedly pushed Harry to the ground in a 2019 row to how he lost his virginity, took drugs and killed 25 people in Afghanistan prompted both condemnation and derision.
Writer A.N. Wilson called the ghostwritten tome – the biggest royal book since Harry’s mother Princess Diana collaborated with Andrew Morton for Diana: Her True Story in 1992 – “calculated and despicable” and a work of “malice”.
“Having made the idiotic decision to ‘go public’ about his rift with the royal family, Harry was no doubt under enormous pressure … to spew out as much poison as possible,” he wrote in the Daily Mail.
“But it has cast him in an appalling light. And whatever he intended, it makes us sympathise not with him, but the Royal Family.”