Strangest bits in Spare…

[Motorcycleemptyness]

i haven’t quite finished it yet but I wanted to read a thread about some of the weirder bits of Spare, and I haven’t seen a thread where people were discussing those without the ‘H&M’ vs the rest of the RF debate. There are definitely some parts which have made me really question why they were included, and I was wondering if anyone else had any similar thoughts.

The inclusion of the imagery of the poppy fields, and how heroin funds the Taliban. Fair enough. We all know that. The rest of the book is one long ode to posh people taking drugs. Does Prince Harry think the cocaine he takes is gently knitted by fairies and delivered to him by unicorns? Do the drugs he takes not contribute to war and terrorism and misery across the rest of the world (and indeed misery and crime in the UK, where he is 5th in line to be monarch!) I found this quite a strange passage and I was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts, or am I just over thinking it?

Elizabeth Arden cream. ‘Mummy’s lips’. ‘Todger’. Why? But really, why? Why was this included? Why did anyone think it or commit it to paper, and then publish it? Why did I read it? Why am I typing it here? ARGH.

What he actually thinks the relationship between the royal family and the press should actually be. Only reporting true things? Someone had a photo of him taking cocaine. Dressed as a nazi. Calling his colleague a ‘P*ki’. He wasn’t happy, but it was all true. Should journalists not be allowed to report true things? Or should they only be reporting things he wants them to report? Does Andrew get to choose that too? What about everyone else?

What the actual royal family should look like. This was mind bending. He seems to be perfectly happy with the idea of the monarchy, an institution which is predicated on the idea that they’re inherently superior to the rest of us, and that’s their birth right, but seems to massively struggle to apply that to himself and William. If a monarchy is the best system, why shouldn’t the heir be treated differently to the spare? (I don’t believe it is the best system and wish we could abolish them all but I don’t understand how one can believe one but not the other!).

Anyone else have any interesting thoughts?

Also his father tried very hard with Meghan and bent over backwards, as did the Queen. Something he conveniently overlooks in the book.

Nothing short of William (and by extension, Kate) relinquishing or sharing the throne with H&M will satisfy Harry. I am sure this is what they will want from Charles - that he somehow make it up to them through this sort of equal treatment, that his mother filled his head with.

That's how he wants to "save" the RF. By being the one in charge.

The thing is I think you probably do have to suspend your humanity to an extent, in order to be able to kill. That is the reality of war. But you do not talk about it like that to the press, you do not put a number on it. Some things should be kept in your head! Especially if your comments can be taken with such significance.

It may have been an ‘honest mistake’, which still paints him in a very bad light as an extremely dim person, or it may have been a calculated attempt to come across to a US audience as a successful soldier/war hero (I gather these things are done a bit differently over there).

God help us. I’d turn republican overnight.

Is Andrews house not on the Windsor Estate, does the security of it not get covered along with Windsor Castle, Frogmore House & Cottage and the house William & Kate have just moved into and any other smaller properties?

Where do the Wessex live, are they not at Windsor too?

But whatever Harry cannot expect the British Tax payer to fund security in the US and effectively money going out the country.

Funding security in the UK, means providing employment for British people.

*Public and press, that should say.

Funding government provided security in the UK, who are subject to UK laws and controls (e.g. as to suitability, character, training), is very different to funding private security in the US, who could be anyone and who could end up doing god knows what, e.g., some trigger happy bodyguard erroneously shooting someone who gets too close.

I am curious to see how the palace will deal with the little problem that is Harry.

He / they want something, not an apology, not security, something else. I thinks it's power, control and adoration. They are planning to subvert the monarchy and they feel entitled to do this.

Harry has forgotten that he is not a spare any longer. That identity is gone, he needs to catch up with that.

I think you're right. Sadly. The grandiose comments about saving the family from themselves is deeply disturbing. He seems to think he's the owner of 'The Truth' and things must be done his way.

I don't see how they can do anything but utterly ignore him, and hope everyone gets bored of the man child tantrums.

Sugarfree23 Yes, Bagshot Park and Royal Lodge (Andrew's place) are both within Windsor Great Park
It's said that Edward's now secured a 150 year lease on the place for just £5 million, though quite why a family of four - one of them now away at Uni - need with a place that huge is anyone's guess

Still, nice gig if you can get it ...

I am curious to see how the palace will deal with the little problem that is Harry.

I am too, I think they will keep quiet, Harry's book has done more harm to Harry than the rest of the RF. Harry's ratings have dropped lower than Andrews.
Charles and William will be business as usual until Harry & Meg self combust and then they'll pick up the pieces.

He’s surrounded by family members who have played at being at war in a sense too.

His grandfather Prince Philip did not 'play' at being at war. He fought in an actual war. So did Andrew, come to that. Whatever you think of him, he did see active service in the Falklands.

The Queen served in WW2 so far as she was able, given her age, and her father saw active service in the Navy in WW1. And the previous Duke of Kent was killed in a flying accident while on active service with the RAF in WW2.

I wonder how much the army had to, or was willing to bend the rules for Harry. I also wonder how he treated women in the army.

His drug use is documented, he actively avoided drug checks.

It doesn't take lots of imagination to wonder if he did anything other than occasional recreation drug use that was against military law.

I'd imagine that any serious misconduct would have been 'managed' so that Harry could keep face.

It's so odd that he didn't take on another role in the army if he says he loved it there, not one for which he needs to be academic or bright, as we know he isn't but something to keep him as an active member of his army family.🤔

Yes. What also amazes me about his description of army life is that he doesn’t seem to have any particular pals. Obvs I wouldn’t expect him to compromise anyone’s security by revealing too many personal details, but I would have expected him to say I really relied on so and so or x and I hung out a lot together and got on so well despite being from totally different backgrounds. But he doesn’t mention forming any close relationships at all, which seems at odds with other accounts of military life, especially in actual war zones. I wonder if he was kept q separate. He already was treated differently because he was allowed to keep his mobile (as if he let all the other new recruits text their girlfriends on it too, fgs he would have been a full time messaging service)

@Sugarfree23

*Funding security in the UK, means providing employment for British people. *

It doesn't mean more jobs, no. It'll need highly trained specialists who are already in the role, and giving them to Harry will take away from where they are currently deployed.

Iknow it sucks from his point of view, but he really cannot expect us to fund his security anywhere and him hiring them with his own money is out of the question because of the precedent it sets.

Ordinary people have to fund what is needed to keep them secure and there are places they cannot go because the risk is too great for them, often through no fault of their own and when they've been victims or witness to a crime. I don't see why it should be different foe him just because he was born into unimaginable privilege and wealth

Does he have any pals? Real ones, I mean. He was so jealous of William's pals who gave the wedding speeches. Does Harry have an equivalent group around him?

I went through 2 cannisters of entonox in my home birth.

Ive just read the article, thanks @StartupRepair. It seems to put fair and balanced questions without pre-empting the answers. Id love someone like Paxo to ask these questions.

eg
During your first primetime interview in March of 2021, you said that when you introduced Meghan to your family in 2016, she was far better received than you anticipated. You went further, adding that your father, brother, Catherine, and the rest of the family were really welcoming and that their behavior towards Meghan did not change until after your South Pacific tour. However, in Spare you write that when you introduced Meghan to your family, William was skeptical, disdainfully referring to her as an “American actress”, and that other members of your family were uneasy, as well. Clearly, you can see how the differences between these two accounts can be confusing. Can you explain the disparity between your differing accounts?

eg
You mention efforts you have made towards reconciliation with your family. Can you give specific examples? How do you plan to regain that trust with your family? Conversely, is it possible for your family to regain your trust? If so, how?

eg
You have said in interviews that pre-dated your meeting Meghan that you were happy to be “the spare.” Was this untrue at the time or did your feelings change with hindsight and/or therapy?

Yes well he used to, he does describe being in vegas and Africa on boys trips. Apparently though, from Tom Bower’s book, Meghan wasn’t too keen on many of them having attended a shooting weekend where they appeared to be boozy, obnoxious, upper class twits (tbf who can blame her). She didn’t like the hunting aspect and brought a yoga teacher with her. Predictably it all went down like a lead balloon. She said they were boors, they all said she was a bore and many of them were ditched by Harry for saying they didn’t think she was right for him (in presumably much less polite terms).

That drug-addled shambles Harry wants to be King? Fucking priceless.

And this, boys and girls, is why republicans exist.

I believe he says in the book that he also had a different best man

@Ridemeginger I’ve wondered the same. He had 16 established old friends from Eton, Army & wives/girlfriends over to meet Meghan at a shooting party (probably not the best event for a first introductory meeting if so).

Harry apparently wanted her to get on well with Katherine & his best pals but (unsurprisingly, perhaps, in reality they had little in common & were world’s apart ).

He was in the midst of an epiphany…& had absorbed or was shortly about to absorb Meghan’s alleged fave tomes: ‘The Mountain Manifesto’ & ‘Eight Steps to Happiness’. There was, looking at the world through a more liberal lens ‘another way’.

Harry was/is seemingly on a voyage of self discovery & as a consequence moved away from old belief & value systems. Now seeing oldest previous pals in a negative light as a result? Who is Harry? He’s working on that. He’s been in the ‘Truman show’ before but now he’s the architect of a new, enlightened life.