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?

*manipulative not manipulated!

Well I’d read Harry’s own words, seemed fair to read a different interpretation . Glad I read spare first otherwise I would have dismissed bower out of hand straight away, but Harry’s helped confirm it’s prob quite a take 😂

Her dad sounds lovely, caring, provided in a great way, but he was also away a lot earning the money to fund her education and lifestyle. Helped set her up a lot too. Does put a different light on him saying that it was time to take care him of now. I felt sad for him when she’s started becoming disdainful of him when she felt she’d made it. And with Trevor, whilst he wasn’t treated respectfully, bower was fair and pointed out Trevor’s drinking, alluded to his affairs, and how his brashness could be off putting. He didn’t lay the blame on Meghan and I appreciated that. But there does seem to be a common theme in how people are love bomber and discarded. And reminded me of the ott initial efforts with Kate and wills (oregano oil, barefoot hugs, I think finding freedom mentioned she bought Kate an expensive book from a company she was a fan of in the early stages prob cos she thought that made her sound kind, but sounded like Love bombing to me) to begin with. And then the brutal discard. Flying off to Canada, and Oprah interviews and docs galore instead of privately resolving a family dispute behind closed doors. Also when revenge mentions how she would leak to the press pre Harry 😂hmmm coincidence

He really convincingly, quietly establishes a pattern of how she deals with people in her adult life. I felt very sorry for the dad. He definitely made major mistakes but he seems to have been an extremely devoted dad. I do think his he is very fair though.

Agree, ‘Revenge’ feels balanced. M’s father, apparently she said his wedding invitation must have got lost in the post (?) whereas Doria got a hand-delivered ‘scroll’.

A cynic might say Meghan never intended her father to attend. Surely he needed time to acclimatise & poss an ‘A type’ like Meghan would have dashed him off to a decent barber/nutritionist/yoga specialist - Trumpers for a wet shave? Bespoke tailoring takes time, just measurements & then arrival x2 days before main event? Really? Millions watching him on TV? Poor man would surely be overwhelmed not to mention jet lagged & he wasn’t in best of health.

If it wasn’t for Tom, Meghan wouldn’t have received so many good opportunities, he sounds like he was a devoted father in her formative years.

Yet in M’s defence, his name was printed on programme & for such an alpha go-getter so much seems surprisingly ‘last minute.com’ & ‘seat of pants’ NB: bridesmaids debacle (?)

Interestingly W apparently made a joke about H’s bald patch, that won’t have been well received.

I think its been removed from the Internet but I remember while the Thomas marble thing was still ongoing messages between him and meghan were published. Harry messaged him, I think maybe when he was in hospital, and he came across as incredibley rude and unpleasant.

*markle, obviously

@Peverellshire ‘M’s father, apparently she said his wedding invitation must have got lost in the post (?) whereas Doria got a hand-delivered ‘scroll’.’ I mean surely the first invites you send is to both parents. She never intended him to be there. Far too off brand. Fgs he was a retired man, why wouldn’t he have been there for weeks before the wedding and been able to be properly fitted for a suit???

In Meghan’s case against the DM the Judge wouldn’t read out Harry’s texts to his father in law because he said they were too obscene to be repeated. Which is REALLY saying something, although it may have been a judicial sparing of the royal blushes. I don’t know if any other citizen in a civil trial - a witness at that not a party to the proceedings - would have been allowed that courtesy. But no one ever covers up anything for them ever.

@Eyerollcentral I am not surprised. I remember reading it and thinking how that is not someone I could tolerate being friends with if he thought it was OK to talk to someone like that.

I'm not a Harry or meghan hater btw. I fully support them moving away, especially where racism is concerned, but i fundamentally disagree with some of the things Harry has said publicly and I don't trust any PR strategy that tries to pitch one party as angelic and the other as bad. It's manipulative and the truth is probably more that neither party is particularly great or particularly awful.

@Eyerollcentral I tend to agree but she kept up the pretence of wanting him there for a long time if so. Apparently someone official turned up to collect him but he’d gone to hospital & she had his name on the programme. She also did measurements only and last minute fittings with the bridesmaids?

He’d wanted to make a speech at the wedding but she’d refused to let him. Apparently.

The Queen & Charles wanted her & H to visit him to try to smooth things over. Apparently she thought someone else had his phone & things weren’t secure.

Someone leant Doria & Thomas, via M, a beachfront home in Caribbean for Thanksgiving. Why not get H to visit then.

Surely if Meghan was serious about Thomas giving her away, he’d have met Harry first?

Surprisingly according to Harry HE arranged the house for thanksgiving (I think it was in California) because her mother’s house was besieged by paps. Please don’t think I mean he PAID for it, it belonged to a friend and was empty. In his description of the scene - though he wasn’t there - he says the father turned up with a pile of tabloids with Meghan in them that he wanted to discuss with her, which upset her. In revenge it says she asked him to stay the night at the house but he insisted on driving back across the border to Mexico 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
It’s MAJORLY odd that Harry hadn’t met her father at all before the wedding. In fact he has never clapped eyes on him. That’s just nowhere within the range of normal behaviour. It was no problem to Harry to fly to LA and then a short drive to Thomas. Indeed what’s even weirder is that Harry said in the book that Doria had been to London some time before the wedding, so well before Thomas was ousted as her dad.
I think really he didn’t fit the brief. Maybe the man is an asshole, we don’t know, but Diana’s father was extremely troublesome and indeed had had a stroke not long before her wedding. Diana’s parents were acrimoniously divorced yet still managed to appear together on the day. The historical context makes it all the weirder. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that she feared he would upset her truth with his truth.
I also think ‘my father’s phone has been compromised and I don’t know where he lives’ is about the same level of spoof that a p. 7 would come up with. I also noted harry made no small hay of the idea Charles and Liz suggested that Meghan should write to her dad w a view to reconciliation, having rejected all other options, which led eventually to her leaking the letter to friends who leaked it to people mag and then Thomas sending his copy to the daily mail and Meghan suing them…long story short, it was Charles and liz’s fault!!!!

Certainly more capable from what he's said twitter.com/Dharghan_/status/1615379002352353282?t=2wLaBOp9WmT4UJIxHKkc_A&s=19

@Eyerollcentral I think (and of course you’re right we can’t know) Meghan’s father sounds like a very good hearted man who poured love into his daughter and sacrificed so much for her. He seemingly did his absolute best In challenging circumstances sacrificing his own time, money & social life in the process & he really stepped up.

However, his actions appear to show him as being rather unpredictable & temperamental at times, possibly with understandable reasons why, not least quite serious health problems. Thing is, this and other factors might have made him an unreliable loose cannon at the wedding. Maybe Meghan felt this but didn’t want to hurt his feelings (?) So delayed? Doria apparently advised Meghan to this end & had influence. Very difficult if so & what to do for the best? Probably honesty the best policy here, ‘Dad, you wouldn’t enjoy it, I love you’. Very difficult.

Up until last week my mum was their biggest fan, and has therefore read Finding Freedom (Omid Scobie) and Spare (J R Moehringer), and she firmly believes that there are passages in both books that have been written by the same person.

I agree there’s something going on with the ‘voice’ in Spare.

I found it strange that Diana would let Harry go on a jetski when he was aged 12 or maybe younger! Now maybe that's normal in some coastal places.

Harry said going to Westminster Abbey for Will & Kate's wedding brought back memories of his mother's funeral. But he had attended the Queen Mother's funeral there when he was 17. That must have been a much tougher day for him.

Yet another opportunity for the reader to draw the comparison between Will's 'happiness' and Harry's 'sadness'.

What will Archie or Lilibet think of their Dad doing drugs at while he's still at school or 'I mounted her quickly' in the field behind the pub?

Then again, Harry had to read about Pa wanting to be Camila's tampon.
And they all got past that quite successfully!

And he also didn’t actually say that (IIRC).

(That he wanted to be a tampon)

@Lizziet64
"However cringeworthy that was , it was said during a private , illegally hacked conversation. Charles didn’t deliberately include it in a memoir for the world to read ."
The RF never actually confirmed it was Charles and Camilla talking. I guess they could have sued over hacking of private conversations, but they never did.

The whole issue surrounding surrogacy would be very difficult in Royal terms as with the existing Legislation requiring children to be born "from the body" means that children born to a surrogate would not be eligible to be in the line of succession