Last month, the much-anticipated paperback copy of Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, hit bookshelves across the world once more. Although, if you were hoping for even more Royal tea, you’ll be sorely disappointed, as the prince has decided not to include any more family secrets.
The timing of book’s release was seen as an intentional snatching of the limelight on Harry’s part, seeing as there’s no denying it certainly got people talking about him and his wife again during King Charles and Queen Camilla’s trip to Samoa. There was some concern that Harry might decide to add a few extra tidbits from his experiences with his own family but, presumably to the relief of his father, brother and every other Royal, the duke of Sussex has decided not to add anything new. This is a pretty unusual move for authors, but experts believe that Harry has his reasons for not including any extra info in the new edition.
Why didn’t Harry add anything new to Spare?
This last year has been somewhat tough for the Royal family, what with King Charles and Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnoses. Experts believe that Harry has decided not to add anything new to avoid making things even more difficult for his relatives and himself. According to NBC’s royal commentator, Daisy McAndrew, recent events may have “made him think twice” about including new content that could further cause upset and distress to his brother and father. This wasn’t something he needed to worry about back at the beginning of 2023.
Back when Spare was first released, Harry claimed that he cut out 400 pages of content with many things that went down between Harry, William, and Charles being left out of the book: “It could have been two books, put it that way.” He likely could have boosted his own sales by adding some of those pages back in. However, now is simply not the time to re-open old wounds.
“I think the fact that people now have so much sympathy for Catherine and for Charles that I think even Harry could read the room and see that it would be extremely unwise, unkind and unforgivable in most people’s eyes if he went further now.”
The reaction to the first edition of Spare saw Harry and Meghan receive strong pushback from the tabloids. Now that many feel a lot more sympathetic towards the Royals, he would practically be crucified if he were to come out with even more dirty family secrets.
If Harry were to go and rock the boat now, it would be a very bad look for him, and he may very well end up falling overboard. None of this means that things have gotten any better between Harry and his family. By all accounts, the family is still as fractured as ever and things don’t look set to change any time soon.