Prince Harry ‘wanted to cancel the publication’ of his bombshell memoir Spare after he visited the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations last year, it has been reported.
The Duke of Sussex‘s second thoughts may have come after he was told by the royal family there would be ‘no way back’ if it was published while the Queen was still alive, sources at the book’s publisher speculated.
After his visit to Britain in June last year with his wife Meghan, the team at Penguin Random House working on Spare were reportedly told the Prince had ‘pulled it’ and that ‘he doesn’t want to do it’.
Prince Harry ‘wanted to cancel the publication’ of his bombshell memoir Spare after he visited the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations last year. Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the St Paul’s Cathedral during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations on June 3 last year
The Duke of Sussex’s second thoughts may have come after he was told by the royal family there would be ‘no way back’ if it was published while the Queen was still alive, sources at the book’s publisher speculated. Pictured left to right: Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Camilla, Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan, Prince Harry, Prince William, and Catherine watch the RAF flypast on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, to mark the centenary of the RAF on July 10, 2018
Prince Harry received a multi-million pound advance for his memoir Spare (pictured) which went on sale by accident nearly a week early in Spain ahead of its January 10 release date
Despite the book being ‘ready to go’ the duke had ‘second thoughts’ after seeing his grandmother, a US publishing source told The Times.
The source told the paper that it was ‘dark day’ for the team after they had worked on Spare in ‘utmost secrecy’, believing it would be ‘one of the biggest and most historic books’ they would publish in their careers.
The team at Penguin Random House was ‘devastated’ after the news, which came two weeks after he and Meghan visited London.
While an official reason was never given, it was rumoured at the publisher Harry was given an ‘ultimatum’ not to publish while his grandmother was alive.
But ‘that all changed with the monarch’s death in September,’ the publishing source reportedly said.
Despite the book being ‘ready to go’ Prince Harry (pictured with wife Meghan during their visit to the UK for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations) had ‘second thoughts’ after seeing the Queen, a US publishing source reportedly said
Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II watch a flypast from the balcony of Buckingham Palace during Trooping the Colour on June 2 last year
They also claimed that it was ‘extraordinary’ how the text had to be translated from American to British English – and they had to go through the whole book to ‘make it sound like [Prince Harry] was actually English’.
It was reported the original draft used the word ‘awesome’ to describe ‘everything’, and used other Americanisms not typically used by a member of the royal family.
Spare – which is ghostwritten by JR Moehringer – was lauded as ‘well written… heartfelt and convincing’ by the Time’s source – and more so than the ‘repetitive and one-dimensional’ Netflix docuseries Harry & Megan.
The memoir, which opens with an account of the 1997 funeral of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, was said to give ‘historic context’ for the duke’s feelings about his family.
Prince Harry feels he ‘grew up in a closed and dysfunctional institution’ and he holds it – at least in part – responsible for his mother’s death, the source reportedly said.
Reportedly during a Zoom call the young children of a senior executive walked past the screen, making Harry ‘furious’ – and he demanded the publisher was taken off the project as his ‘whole thing is about control’ as ‘he feels he’s never had it’.
Prince Harry’s book also reveals he once believed that Princess Diana faked her own death by staging the tragic Paris tunnel car crash to escape her ‘miserable’ life. Pictured: The pair above in Majorca, Spain in 1987
Despite not being released yet, Spare has already caused controversy after PR experts warned Harry’s ‘truth-bombs’, revealing he took cocaine and killed 25 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, could have dire consequences for Meghan’s political hopes.
The Duke of Sussex writes in his bombshell memoirs Spare that he also wanted the inquiry into the Princess of Wales‘s fatal accident to be reopened.
Harry, then 13 and staying at Balmoral, learnt that his mother was killed in a car crash and admits he wondered if the incident had been a ‘trick’ played by his late mother.
‘Her life’s been miserable, she’s been hounded, harassed, lied about, lied to. So she’s staged an accident as a diversion and run away,’ Harry wrote.
