Just finished 'Spare'...

[HerReputationMadeItDifficultToProceed]

… and I encourage anyone who’s even vaguely interested in this story to give it a read. Especially if what’s been leaked has made you at all angry, because I think in context everything makes a lot of sense.

I wasn’t a Harry and Meghan hater before reading this, but I wasn’t a fan girl either. Like many Brits, I find a lot of Americans- especially West Coast Americans- quite irritating and Meghan firmly falls into that camp for me. I’m sure she’s nice enough, but she’s very American and very perky and much like Wednesday Addams, I don’t do perky. However, I suspect that her intentions and generally good and that like most of us she’s got good and bad qualities. She’s clearly ambitious and I think that she probably initially dated Harry based on that ambition and on getting a platform, although I think that she genuinely loves him now.

The ghost writer has done a great job at capturing Harry’s personality I think; he comes across as introspective and thoughtful but funny and bright.

I think that Harry has a good soul; I think that he’s kind and has had a hard time of it growing up. I also think he’s a bit clueless and naive and has been in a bubble, but I think he acknowledges that and wants to understand and change. Undoubtedly losing his mother at the age he was had more of an outward impact on him than it had on William. He’s also been a victim of his dad’s wishywashy parenting. It sounds like- and looks like to me from my vantage point as a normal citizen who knows bugger all except what I’ve seen in the media- that Charles has been there for his kids to an extent, but not in a hands on or especially useful way. It also seems clear that Charles has always put Camilla first. From almost the moment Diana died it seems that he wanted, above everything else, to rehabilitate Camilla’s image so that they could marry. I think that he put that above being a father and the way Harry writes about their relationship makes that clear too.

I also think that it’s suited the palace to portray Harry as dimwitted and feckless to show William in a better light and that Harry has every right to be angry about that and not want to play that game anymore (and to call it out now). Especially as it’s obvious that the palace haven’t kept up their side of the bargain and protected Harry from the media in return.

I also think that the media have treated H and M poorly and it’s clearly the case that the palace has used them and news stories about them to divert from other newsworthy problems… certainly Prince Andrew, perhaps William’s affair/s. Is Harry overly jumpy about the media and the paparazzi in particular? Yes, of course. Who wouldn’t be with his background. But they’ve also obviously been hounded and harassed.

I do think that Harry is on a journey that he isn’t at the end of yet, but I think that he realises that too. I think that he was always going to leave the royal family and that Meghan didn’t cause what’s happened, she was just the catalyst for it. I think that he’s been scapegoated and an afterthought within his nuclear family and I don’t blame him for being angry. I think that he means well and is essentially good. And I don’t think that anyone who’s read the whole book would be able to disagree.

More than anything I think it’s clear that the British Royal Family is no longer fit for purpose; the way they live, bring up their children, pay their members for work and demand unrealistic levels of protocol and formality is no longer working in the 21st century. These people need purpose and lives beyond the crown and those on the edges of the heir shouldn’t have to live their lives in service of the their. Realistically H and M could have worked as royals and had private interests, the RF chose not to bend to help them live fulfilling lives because of its own, outdated reasons.

I did not see that. How many minutes through? I have it on Youtube, I can look and apologise to you if that's the case.

You are insinuating he took some drugs before he went on. Rightio

Whether he had two sips of a drink or had snorted coke and downed two tequilas, he came across just as eloquently at the beginning as he did at the end.

Tom Brady seemed to go off script slightly, otherwise I wouldn’t call them interviews in a journalistic approach but more of a scripted PR exercise.

I don’t know how many minutes @Roussette. If you don’t believe me and it’s so important to you just watch it again. I don’t want an apology - I’m not Harry - but I know what I saw.

It’s possible but I doubt it was a deliberate leak. Proof copies always exist - I’ve read books ahead of their behind published in the U.K. - and security isn’t always what it should be. Generally publishing houses spend a lot of money on security, legal contracts and publicity around these kinds of books and they’d be be unlikely to scupper their own campaign with poorly translated texts creating media coverage they couldn’t control. So I think a stray proof copy is the more likely source for the Guardian story. I don’t know how booksellers in Spain broke the embargo early and where there will be any legal consequences.

The only explanation was that Harry and Meghan gave entirely the wrong impression of the RF and were content to do so.

I am just reading Edward Leah’s nonsense rhymes which I think might make more sense than Harry’s autobiography

Did I think they were calling them out in the OW interview? I think they were pointing out entrenched old-fashioned mindsets

Ok but surely then when it became a "racism in the royal family story" and the queen issued a statement about how concerned she was, they ought to have made it clear? Given that they expected the RF to correct stories about them? And they should have refused an award for tackling racism in the rf?

Otherwise it looks very hypocritical and cruel.

Oh ffs who cares they wanted to leave the RF after having that brilliant wedding why doesnt he disappear to America and stop moaning, we all have problems he s facing the cameras i reckon shes pulling his strings , thats why he always looks so stressed

Totally agree with Jammi

I don't think their book changed opinions in the UK because we are pretty clued up and opiniated about the monarchy. However, I think it will do some damage in some of the commonwealth countries especially where there is a constant search for confirmation bias. The Oprah interview also did this but the book will have a larger impact.

Let’s face it all this is a thick rich bloke being manipulated by a highly scheming wife. When she’s done with him he will be left high and dry.

Even I can't sit through the whole thing again lol

It's so good to see reasonable sensible posts on here

I think another reasonable and sensible comment would be to say that when I read about the lives of some kids in Africa and other developing countries working down mines and in brick kilns from the age of about 5 years old and going hungry every day - yes it’s happening today - i’m not terribly sympathetic to the plight of a couple of moaning multimillionaires living in a mansion with 16 bathrooms. Seems to me better projects to be involved with. I know there are some who disagree with me but there it is

amp.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/15/spare-by-prince-harry-review-dry-your-eyes-mate

great review

Steven pours the drink 3 minutes in.
The first time Harry picks up the drink is at 8:35 minutes in. He took a sip. Steven Colbert gulped about half of his.
AT 14:32 Harry took another sip, SC finished his glass.
25:10 Harry takes another sip - this is still the first glass poured
30:25 - SC asked about his penis and he said can I have another drink. SC pours him one.
35:05 They both take a sip
Harry never touches the glass again.

You don't have to watch the entire 38 minutes, but if you pull up the video and skip forward every 5 seconds by hitting the
right arrow, you can see that the glass never moves except on those times noted above.

onlylarkin Thank you! I just didn't see him gulping it down or 'off his face'.

I get some of the criticism of him, I understand why, but that I felt was unfair.

I should mention that both @Roussette and @Blossomtoes are both correct about the drink, interestingly enough.

Harry took 4 sips from the glass and never fully emptied it.

SC did pour him more, when he asked, despite the glass not being empty from the first time.

This was an amazing study in perception and how 2 people can watch the same thing and see 2 different things.

‘‘How impressive she is, talking of women’s rights and something called Eat, Pray, Love! Packing only jeans, shorts and a yoga mat for Botswana! He will give her anything, even a California house with a pond full of koi, though to do so he would prefer not to have to spend even “some” of his inheritance from his mother. So here we are. Penguin Random House has helped him out and we can only hope he’s happy with his end of the deal, a pact more Faustian by far than anything his father or brother have ever signed.’’

That was real dedication @onlylarkin, I’m seriously impressed. And you’re right, what an interesting experiment. Thank you.

The whole reason I went and looked is because the first time I watched the interview, it stood out to me that he didn't drink that much and I wondered if maybe he has done AA.

That is speculation on my part and has absolutely no basis in reality.

Hehe and I'm often quite unobservant but I was thinking, at the time, gawd I'd be downing that if it were me!

although tequila gives me the mother of all hangovers. Every. Single. Time.

My stomach turned when he poured it. A result of MY 20's and to much tequila.

He wouldn’t be drinking at all if he’d gone down the AA route. They’re all about total abstinence.

I didn’t say he was rolling around or off his face. I said he was drinking tequila, which he was.