The success achieved by the burning memoir «Spare» (400,000 copies were sold in England on Wednesday alone and Harry earned between 9 and 12 million pounds) could not be without consequences. The ex-prince’s confessions are so harsh, so tough is the reaction of Buckingham Palace which has already made it known through the “senior royals” that the Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan will not be welcome at the coronation of King Charles III. “Maybe the speeches we make would end up in the paperback edition of his book…” they let it be known. While only a few weeks ago the sovereign had communicated that he required the whole family for the event.
Meanwhile the book gallops, it sells, its pages are drunk because the prose of a ghostwriter (Pulitzer Prize) like JR Moehringer goes down like a good wine, touching the chords of feelings and producing in the reader an identification effect with the poor «son si escort” which accompanies it to the last page.
The drama of being a “spare part” for William
It is on page 26 that we understand – therefore almost immediately – what Prince Harry feels in this role of heir-non-heir: «Willy, who is two years older than me, was the Heir, I the Reserve». It wasn’t just what the press called him, it was often the definition they gave him “dad, mom and grandfather, and even grandmother”. That definition, the Heir and the Backup, wasn’t so much a judgment, as Harry claims, but it left little room for interpretation. “I was the shadow, the support, the plan B”, writes the prince in Spare referring to his brother William. Apparently, it was not a question of a formal replacement, someone to be entrusted with the role of deputy to the Crown, but rather an authentic, raw, “spare part”: “I was born into the world in case something happened to Willy, I was been summoned as a reinforcement, distraction, diversion. Maybe a kidney, a blood transfusion, or a piece of spinal cord. All of this had been made clear to me since I can remember, and reiterated regularly ever since.”
That phrase from dad Carlo
«I was twenty when I learned of the alleged phrase that dad would have said to mom on the day of my birth: “Splendid! Now you have given me an heir and a reserve: my work is done”. It was probably a joke. But, on the other hand, it is said that a few minutes after having performed in this comedy sketch my father met his girlfriend. Conclusion: jokes often tell the truth».
«The monarchy is like the weather, you don’t change it»
Harry confesses that he felt like the least important pawn in a game that was eluding him: «He feels like a pawn in a game he can’t control: «I didn’t feel offended, I didn’t feel anything at all. The line of succession is like the weather, the position of the planets, or the changing of the seasons. And who had the time to worry about things that couldn’t be changed anyway?». Being a Windsor meant understanding that everything from feelings to behaviors to relationships was passed through the filter of the Crown. And this Harry understood, but inside he could not accept it. “It meant absorbing the fundamental traits of your own identity, knowing instinctively who you were, which essentially boiled down to forever being the by-product of who you weren’t,” writes the duke.
“I was the last wheel of the wagon”
“I wasn’t the grandmother. I wasn’t dad. I was not Willy. I was third in the line of succession behind them. At least once in their life, any boy or girl imagines that he or she is a prince or princess. So, spare tire or not, it wasn’t all that bad. And I add: Isn’t standing steadfastly behind the people you love the definition of honor?
“Hands on”
The pages on that time when his brother William laid hands on him are very hard. William, with the excuse of helping Harry, would have called Meghan “difficult”, “rude”. Harry writes that he said he can’t talk to William when he’s ‘like this’, and then things came to his hands. “Everything happened so fast – writes Harr – very fast. He grabbed me by the collar and threw me to the ground. I landed on the dog bowl, which cracked under my back, with the pieces cutting into me. I stood there for a moment, dazed, then got up and told him to go away.” William urged Harry to react, Harry claims, and when he didn’t, William appeared “sorry and apologised”. The Prince of Wales told his brother he shouldn’t have told Meghan, and Harry replied: “You mean you attacked me?” In response, William allegedly said, “I didn’t attack you, Harold.”