Prince Harry makes sensational claims in memoir Spare
A stream of sensational claims and accusations from Prince Harry’s autobiography, Spare, have been leaked.
The book outlines grievances and bitterness in the Royal Family, such as a claim he and Prince William urged their father not to marry Camilla.
But one of the most striking claims from Harry, first reported by the Guardian newspaper, was how he was physically attacked by his brother.
Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have both said they will not comment.
Harry writes that he and William begged their father not to marry Camilla, now Queen Consort, over fears she would be their wicked stepmother, the Sun newspaper – which also obtained a Spanish version after it was published there ahead of its official release date – has reported.
The Sun reports that Harry claims he and his brother had separate meetings with Camilla before she officially joined the family.
Harry alleges that he pondered whether she would one day be his “wicked stepmother”, but that he and his brother were willing to forgive her in “their hearts” if she could make King Charles happy.
There is no detail given on when the meeting took place or how old Harry was at the time.
Harry describes how his sadness over the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, led to him seeking help from a woman who “claimed to have ‘powers”.
“Your mother says that you are living the life that she couldn’t live,” Harry says the woman told him. “You’re living the life she wanted for you.”
Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when Harry was 12.
Harry’s account of a conversation he says he had with his late mother is short, according to the Guardian – which obtained a copy of the book and published an extract in the early hours of Thursday.
There is also no detail on where or when the meeting with the woman took place.
In the memoir, Harry describes his father waking him to break the news that Diana had been involved in a car accident.
Harry writes that Charles – who Harry says was not good at expressing his feelings under “normal circumstances” – did not hug him at this point.
Later, Harry writes about replicating the car journey Diana made in Paris in the lead-up to her death, hoping it would give him closure – but says it instead left him questioning the official cause of her death.
Harry claims his brother grabbed his collar, ripped his necklace and knocked him to the floor at his London cottage.
The book sets out an argument between the pair, which Harry claims was sparked by comments made by William about Meghan.
Harry writes that his brother was critical of Meghan with William describing her as “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”.
The Duke of Sussex said that his brother was “parrot[ing] the press narrative” as the confrontation escalated, according to the Guardian.
Harry is said to describe what happened next, including an alleged physical altercation.
“He set down [a glass of] water, called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast.
“He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.
“I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”
Harry writes that he was 17 when he lost his virginity to an older woman in a field behind a pub.
He says it was a “humiliating” experience, during which the woman treated him “like a young stallion”.
The memoir also claims William and Catherine laughed when Harry returned home dressed in a Nazi uniform before a fancy dress party in 2005.
Harry says he was debating costumes for the event and called on the pair to ask their opinions, he had a pilot’s uniform and a Nazi outfit to choose from. He details it in his memoir:
“I called Will and Kate and asked them what they thought.”
“Nazi uniform, they said.”
“I rented it, along with a ridiculous moustache, and returned home.
“Willy and Kate were laughing. It was even worse than Willy’s leotard costume. Much more ridiculous.”
Harry was 20 when the Sun published a front page photo of him dressed in the uniform at a costume party with a “Native and Colonial” theme.
Harry says he was offered a line of cocaine at someone’s house when he was 17 and admits taking the drug on several other occasions, although he did not enjoy it.
He writes: “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 also recounts smoking cannabis in a bathroom at Eton College while a pupil, as the Thames Valley Police officers serving as his bodyguards patrolled the exterior of the building.
Harry also describes taking magic mushrooms during a trip to California in 2016, the Telegraph reports.
“You don’t know me Harold. And I don’t know you,” is what Harry claims William said to him as he was about to start school at Eton College.
Harry says his brother explained to him “that during his first two years there, Eton had been a sanctuary”.
“That was without the burden of a little brother who would bother him with questions or stick his nose in his social circle,” Harry says.
He says he told William “not to worry”. He claims to have said to his brother: “I will forget I know you.”
He says he met late TV presenter Caroline Flack when he went to a restaurant with friends in 2009. Describing her as “sweet” and “funny”, he writes that the press soon found out and photographers tracked them down.
“That set off a frenzy,” he writes. “In a matter of hours a horde of journalists was camped outside Flack’s parents’ house, her friends’ houses and her grandmother’s house.
“We kept seeing each other from time to time but we never felt free again. We kept going because we had a good time together and because we didn’t want to admit defeat at the hands of those imbeciles.
“But the relationship was tainted, irredeemably, and in the end we decided it just wasn’t worth the grief and harassment. Above all for her family. We said goodbye. Goodbye and good luck.”
While serving as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan in 2012-13, Harry says he participated in six missions, all of which involved deaths, but saw them as justifiable.
“It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it leave me ashamed,” he writes. “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.” (Courtesy BBC)
