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Prince Harry’s memoir finally has a release date. It will be released on January 10, almost three years to the day since Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced their intention to “step back” from their roles as senior members of the British royal family. in one of the most prominent upheavals of the institution in decades.
The book will be titled “Spare”, in a possible reference to Harry’s role growing up as third in line to the throne, behind his father, Charles, now King Charles III, and older brother, William, now Prince of Wales. the
On social media, observers immediately zeroed in on the title. “The power and pathos of a word,” said Peter Hunt, the BBC’s former royal correspondent.
Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan will give up their titles of “Royal Highness”.
In making the announcement Thursday, publisher Penguin Random House touted the book as a “landmark publication” written with “raw, unflinching honesty.” It has been described as a “tell-all”.
But in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death and signs of a possible rapprochement between Harry and the royal family after their dramatic split in 2020 and subsequent move to the United States, questions have been raised about how revealing it will really be the content of the book. .
On September 10, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, made a rare joint appearance with the Prince and Princess of Wales. (Video: The Washington Post)
Buckingham Palace declined to comment through a spokesman when contacted by The Washington Post.
In a promotional website launched Thursday, the publisher said the book will be released in 15 languages, including French, Polish and Chinese, in addition to English. It will also be released as an audiobook, read by Harry himself.
The announcement is sure to draw mixed reactions in the UK, where Harry, once a well-regarded member of the royal family, has drawn the ire of the British public for his high-profile break with Buckingham Palace and the stunning allegations he and Meghan have made against the royal family, particularly those contained in an interview last year with Oprah Winfrey.
Among them: that when Meghan was pregnant with her first child, a son she and Harry later named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, a family member raised “concerns and conversations about how dark her skin might be when had been born”.
Since then, both Harry and Meghan have signed lucrative deals with media powerhouses such as Netflix and Spotify from their base in Santa Barbara, California, revealing more, but, many suspect, not all, about their time as members of the royal family and about Harry’s childhood. .
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Of all these projects, Harry’s memoir has attracted the most feverish speculation. It was announced in July 2021, with an expected release date of “late 2022”. At the time, Harry said in a press release that he hoped to share “a first-hand account of my life that is accurate and completely truthful” — a possible investigation into the British tabloids, with whom he and Meghan engaged in a legal battle during years. on claims of privacy violations, among other things.
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But the launch date was pushed back to next year after Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, died aged 96 in September. Some speculated that Harry was uncomfortable with the book’s possible ramifications on the royal family.
At the Queen’s funeral, he and Meghan put on a united front with other royals. According to the Telegraph, royal commentator Tina Brown said earlier this month that she thought the book would not “see the light of day”.
It’s clear the book will go ahead, but the announcement of its title and release date is sure to fuel speculation about its contents, possibly to the delight of its publisher.
William Booth contributed to this report.