Title of the book

[80s]

I haven't been following this avidly so sorry if it's already been asked. Can anyone who's bought "Spare" say whether and how the title is brought up in the book? On another social media platform some people were discussing the phrase "an heir and a spare" as if it was a cruel thing that Charles thought up, whereas I know it as a common, old jokey saying about families that have anything to inherit - a saying that I could imagine being used by royals jokingly. What was the context here?

I believe he says that he was born to provide spare body parts for his brother should he need them so he definitely doesn't see it as a joke.

Seriously!?
He truly is delusional if that’s what he thinks.

He said that when he was born his father told his mother "Wonderful! Now you've given me an heir and a spare – my work is done."

The title choice is wrong

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Oh, that is quite specific! Does he say that's what he was told, or heard?

So from the sound of it, this was not presented as a funny family anecdote?!

Heir and the spare. It's a standard phrase about royalty. How there needs to be an heir and a spare in case the heir dies. George VI (the late Queen's father) was a handy spare when his Nazi brother fucked up. Avoids a succession crisis.
Margaret was spare for the Queen. Charlotte is the spare for George.
If Queen Victoria had died without kids, it would have been tricky to work out next in line.
Pretty sad way of looking at people.

It's been recorded in print since at least 1898 (Duchess of Marlborough used the phrase, but not known if she coined it)

So pre-dates Charles' birth by at least 50 years

He said that when he was born his father told his mother "Wonderful! Now you've given me an heir and a spare – my work is done."

I find it remarkable that he can remember this being only a few hours old! But then again recollections may vary.

And if this was his mother telling him then shame on her!

Harry tells readers what his father ‘allegedly said’ to Princess Diana on the day of his birth in 1984: ‘Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare — my work is done.’ A joke, he presumes, before adding: ‘On the other hand, minutes after delivering this bit of high comedy, Pa was said to have gone off to meet his girlfriend.’

A pity he didn’t rely on his mother’s version of events. According to Diana: Her True Story, the book she secretly collaborated on with Andrew Morton, what Prince Charles actually said was: ‘Oh, it’s a boy and he’s even got rusty hair.’ (A common Spencer family colouring.) Morton writes: ‘With these dismissive remarks he left to play polo.’

There was no mention of meeting a ‘girlfriend’. Perhaps that was because it was another two years before Charles reignited his affair with the then Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles. Indeed, Diana herself recalled the period around Harry’s birth was the happiest time of her entire marriage.

I think I'd believe Diana's account over his

Very poor show to say it was a girlfriend when his mother said polo.

What's his evidence for the existence of a girlfriend? (I had thought that both parents were faithful during the child-producing years - by accounts from both of them - and it was only a couple of years later that it all fell apart

A joke, he presumes, before adding: ‘On the other hand, minutes after delivering this bit of high comedy, Pa was said to have gone off to meet his girlfriend.’
OK, so he recognises that it's a joke, but also that it is a shit joke. Fair enough! I wonder who chose the title. I might get the audiobook but am not sure how many hours of victimisation I want to listen to!

He writes how it feels to be seen as the spare his whole life. He felt that was his only purpose and he wanted a different purpose.

I suppose it is like having second child syndrome. Totally normal, except his was blown up on the world's stage. The world had put him in a box he didn't want to be in.