Prince Harry’s Memoirs to be published.

[Madasahattersteaparty1749]

Blurb from publisher.

In an intimate and heartfelt memoir from one of the most fascinating and influential global figures of our time, Prince Harry will share, for the very first time, the definitive account of the experiences, adventures, losses, and life lessons that have helped shape him.

Covering his lifetime in the public eye from childhood to the present day, including his dedication to service, the military duty that twice took him to the frontlines of Afghanistan, and the joy he has found in being a husband and father, Prince Harry will offer an honest and captivating personal portrait, on that shows readers that behind everything they think they know lies an inspiring, courageous and uplifting human story.'

I wonder if they've been told no balcony for the jubilee. Or maybe it's to do with the christening arrangements they're in a sulk about. Bit odd to announce a book now which is a year and a half away from being published.

@PurpleOkapi

Meghan gets blamed because she's very obviously the brains of the operation, or at least less of a dolt than Harry. If it were the other way around and people were blaming Harry because they thought Meghan wasn't smart enough to have come up with most of this on her own, the same people currently saying it's racist to blame Meghan would instead be claiming it was racist to blame Harry because doing so presumed that Meghan, a woman of color, was stupid.

But how do we know Meghan is the brains the operation?. Why can’t it be that Harry wants to do whatever he wants to do with his life?. I don’t buy the whole Harry was lovely & fun before he met Meghan and she changed him. He always seemed unhappy with some aspects of his life as a royal and he voiced this out too. I see no justification of blaming Meghan for a grown man’s decisions either way. And I can’t speculate whether people are racist or not for blaming her for what Harry does. I have not accused anyone of racism here tbh. All I know from experience is that a woman, a woman of color especially is always the convenient scapegoat.

Brains of the operation *

Meghan maybe feeding his ego, but it's created a monster time will tell how that relationship goes. I think Wallis Simpson made a huge mistake but lived with it

@Viviennemary

I wonder if they've been told no balcony for the jubilee. Or maybe it's to do with the christening arrangements they're in a sulk about. Bit odd to announce a book now which is a year and a half away from being published.

Yep was thinking the same. Or until the royal payments start coming in again.... poker game, who holds the longest and who will give in!

And whoever is running the "operation" is still a very bad operation

They're a bad combination. Neither is stupid and neither is a genius but I think they enable each others' delusions. There's another word for that, they both like admiration. They admire each other. Full time. They're each others' cheerleaders. And that's good, generally, when you just need somebody in your corner after a rejection or before you have to face a negotiation. But they remind me of my mum and dad. My mum and dad don't live in a fifteen million dollar house but they do this to each other. They totally enable each others' denial. I've paid for that so that they can delude themselves. Their children will have to support their rosy perceptions of themselves. So I hope Harry does break the cycle of pain!

all that's left is to do it again and again but even less public interest, until what you had is gone and what you have isn't worth a hill of beans.

TSS I agree it isn’t healthy or sustainable (professionally or personally) for anyone to be a one-note celebrity selling their own family or personal life dramas for the long term. Hopefully Harry will bring forward a lot of unrelated other things to talk about in between now and the new book coming out. .

I think @Zuluqueen has a point here. Harry is a grown man and needs to be held responsible for the management of his own life and decisions. Neither his mum's death nor his wife's personality or actions can be the scapegoat in all this. It's still on him. I do tend to agree that he and Meghan have some attitudes and behaviours in common where they intensify each other's unhelpful reactions to things. But this book will have his name on it, and he'll have to answer for what he's said. It will actually be much harder then for him to hide behind 'my wife and I...'

I definitely agree that the 'lovely fun Harry' has now been exposed as a good palace PR job. Meghan hasn't taken that away, though her presence has sort of freed him up to be declare himself more openly to be a superior person, someone to look up to, that he's always actually wanted to be. It's a question of who will end up feeling more like they've been the stepping stone for the other.

@ItPearl

They're a bad combination. Neither is stupid and neither is a genius but I think they enable each others' delusions. There's another word for that, they both like admiration. They admire each other. Full time. They're each others' cheerleaders. And that's good, generally, when you just need somebody in your corner after a rejection or before you have to face a negotiation. But they remind me of my mum and dad. My mum and dad don't live in a fifteen million dollar house but they do this to each other. They totally enable each others' denial. I've paid for that so that they can delude themselves. Their children will have to support their rosy perceptions of themselves. So I hope Harry does break the cycle of pain!

I know people like that! I don’t think H will break the cycle because he apparently thinks his own behaviour is just fine.

They do cherry pick. UK type maternity paternity leave. When they don't even work. Compare that to USA leave it leaves a nasty taste.

They've done nothing worthwhile since their feet hit American soil bar a couple of masked pr opportunities

@MouseontheLouse

I wonder what the title will be?

Mummy, Meghan, Money and Me.

@MouseontheLouse 👍👏🏻

@Zuluqueen

I can easily believe Harry's been unhappy about being a working royal for much of his adult life, dating back to well before he met Meghan. In fact, I do believe that. Or at least, I believe there were a lot of things he's always disliked about it. But I think that actually supports the view that Meghan is the one driving the bus here, because if Harry had wanted to leave for his own sake, he could have done it a long time ago. He had Diana's money this whole time. His extended family was no less dysfunctional then than it is now. At least two serious girlfriends reportedly ended things because they didn't want to live in the fishbowl, so the thought had surely occurred to him that life might be simpler as a private citizen. If you believe the family's less-than-wholeheartedly-supportive reaction was in part motivated by racism, then that should mean they'd have been more supportive had he left before he met Meghan. But he either didn't really want to leave at that time, or he just couldn't figure out how to navigate it and what to do instead.

Harry's educational accomplishments, such as they are, always seem to have some kind of asterisk attached to them. I think it's fair to say that he wasn't a good student, and that he got a lot of help (and maybe more than just 'help') due to his status. That's not true of Meghan - she got what she got without any of that, which makes me think she's probably a lot smarter than he is. She also comes off as much more articulate. I know that's a loaded term to use in reference to a PoC, but I only mean it in direct comparison to Harry. She's very well-informed about the issues she chooses to address, while Harry often comes off as rather less so. That may not be entirely fair: it may be that he's equally well-informed about different issues, but chooses to speak less about those issues and more about issues of Meghan's choosing. That would still suggest, though, that Meghan's really the one running things.

Plus, they've basically left his world and stepped into hers. Meghan has a lot of professional experience with the Hollywood scene. Harry has zero. Meghan handled her own PR while building an acting career, which included things like strategic paparazzi management. Harry always had people to do that for him, and was never really the one calling the shots. Their various projects are definitely trading on Harry's connections, but they're also much more aligned with Meghan's areas of substantive experience and expertise than they are with Harry's.

None of this mean that Harry's decisions aren't really his own decisions, or that he's not responsible for them just like any other adult would be. They are, and he is. But I think whether he'd have done or wanted to do things like Oprah or Apple TV or this new tell-all were it not for Meghan's influence is, at the very least, a fair question.

I think the title will be "Just Call Me Prince Harry"

Or "The People's Prince"

@HoppingPavlova That's strange I smelled your bullshit right off the bat!

@SpanishLady

Looking at it from H's point of view - what does he want?

Some might immediately say money and I think we can't discount that but he's said he's giving it to charity (assuming that is fact and not inference - not sure of the source of this) so let's accept that. That said wanting money when it brings you into conflict with your family is quite a thing just for cash is odd so there's more to it of course surely.

What does he want from his family? What does he want from the general public or the media?

Is it an apology? And for what? A sense of his being considered right? Nothing at all?

What is the point of what he is doing and how is repeating his messaging over and over effective?

I’ve wondered this as well. We already know he thinks his family & the UK are a sack of shite. We know he served in Afghanistan. We know his life was hideous until he met MM.

The book is going full scale Facebook after a couple of bottles of Lambrini ‘NOTHIN BUT SNAKES ROUND ERE, JUST ME AND THE KIDS FROM NOW ON’

Except no ‘PM U HUN’

At the end of the day part of the allure of any royal family, ours included, is that their public sees some bits of them but they maintain an aura of exclusivity. In modern day times this has changed but the premise is still the same.

Show the world your warts and all and the allure is severely reduced as is your bankable value. Money can buy you many things in life, but it can’t buy you titles and royal lineages. This is the prestigious value that all European royal families are well aware of.

The Americans are only interested in this couple because of the prestige of their royal value as witnessed by the number of A listed wedding guests attending a big royal affair with all the pomp and ceremonial style they were afforded. But bit by bit Harry and Meghan are undoubtedly eroding this and devaluing their “brand”.

Going forward it’s going to be hard constructing solid platforms of trust for future work and relationships as he is definitely proving himself to be a hypocrite. Would you now want him as an ambassador?

Equally well there are many examples in life of people who have had a true disadvantage and turned that to their advantage to their great credit. Stephen Hawkins could be considered as one such person and in today’s age somebody like Katie Piper.

If one compared Harry’s whinging to the truly remarkable achievements of say Katie Piper he is such an embarrassment to himself.

He’s literally closing so many doors for the future that it’s astonishing that he, or she, cannot comprehend this. He can’t continue playing the victim all his life and he has a lot of life to live that would be better served focusing on other things. But the doors are going to start closing soon.

One of their 'nicknames' that somebody thinks is funny but is designed to mock them.

Yes, like Megz and Haz. Not exactly examples of great wit.

Very true @Kipperandarthur

One thing Harry's biography has done is delight the Daily Mail. I was just browsing today's news and the Mail is full of rubbish stories, unpleasantness and wild speculation. Piers Morgan, too, is out in force. Sheesh.

Nobody has even read the book yet!

I hate the media. I only looked to see the latest Covid news and reaction to Cumming's interview.

@AnnunciataZ

Sounds like a snooze of a book tbh and I'll give it a wide berth, but I'm sure certain posters on Mumsnet won't be able to resist a hate read! How else would they get their frothing kicks?

Pretty much everyone has replied similarly to you in that this book is irrelevant and will be dull yet somehow your version of the comment is superior, why is that? Is it how you get your kicks?

Title could be "hypocritic oaf"

Just call me Prince Harry

That sums him up.

Has anyone read finding freedom?

First the interview with Oprah was aired as Prince Philip lay dying in hospital, and now this book is scheduled for release during the Queen’s platinum jubilee year. I find the timing of both deeply disrespectful. What a disappointment they’ve turned out to be.