It’s safe to say that the launch of the book did not go quite as meticulously planned by Harry and his publisher. Early copies printed in Spanish were available last week, and so there have been days of giddy tabloid revelations the Duke of Sussex hates.
Harry He lost his virginity In a field, we learn. Harry shot 25 Taliban. Harry and his older brother, the heir, Prince William, quarreled – Many. Harry writes that William looks older and more bald and their wives fight over lip gloss, “baby brains” and bridesmaid dresses.
So, what now, what next?
In the book and in stream of interviews Given that, for CBS’s “60 Minutes,” for ITV in London and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” it’s hard to know exactly what Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, want.
“I don’t think my father or my brother would ever read the book,” Harry said on Britain’s ITV, after writing in the foreword that he was writing the book so they would understand, and why he and Meghan had to flee his “Mother Country of California” in fear for our sanity and safety. physical.”
Harry told an interviewer that he would be part of the family forever, and asked about giving up their royal titles. He said he didn’t see a way back, but who knows? Members of the House of Windsor live a very long time.
Early reviews describe the book as a cry for help, for a change, from Harry to a family he calls “trapped” in their roles. Others see a grumpy indulgence – the opposite of the late Queen whose duty and service were praised, honor and unearthly calmness in all things family. Elizabeth has not been interviewed by the press in her 70 years on the throne.
Harry and Meghan said their origin story hasn’t been told – until now. But in Oprah Winfrey’s 2021 interview, Many Meetings promotes the memoir, the six-hour documentary Harry and Meghan produced about themselves for Netflix titled “Harry & Meghan” They definitely got their side.
In any case, the book will sell out. It is already at the top of bestseller lists. It’s smashing. It’s a great Michelle Obama. And there will probably be more books written by Harry and Meghan, who switched jobs from “senior royals” to former senior royals, who keep their titles while talking about the family you won’t talk about.
And what about the reconciliation, peace, or reckoning that Harry talks about so much? Is this a possibility? Not very likely, say the royal correspondents, who Harry hates too – and scoffs.
Harry’s father, Charles, is due to be crowned in May. It is not known at the moment if Harry and Meghan will attend.
True, the couple succeeded in one of their goals, and regained some control over their romance. None of the royals has gone as far as Harry and Meghan in detailing family dysfunction and naming names.
Harry appears to have already acquired his stepmother, Camilla, the Queen Consort, his father’s wife and longtime lover, and now the new King Charles III. She is, in Harry’s view, a schemer who has played “the long game. A campaign aimed at marriage and, ultimately, the crown.”
While many Brits have been outraged by the prince and his American wife, many have related to their story, particularly accusations that the royal family and British tabloids are either racist or suffer from “unconscious bias.”
Just minutes after midnight on Tuesday, Sara Nakana, 46, a property surveyor who lives in south London, was one of the first in the country to purchase a copy of Spear from an almost empty Victoria Station bookstore.
“I’m excited to hear about Prince Harry’s life story from Prince Harry,” Nakana said, holding up a hard copy of the 417-page book.
She said, “I want to get ahead of the British press… There will be a frenzy of anti-Harry and Megannis in the morning, because hate sells… And it’s important for me to hear his story in his words.”
As if the first book buyer was surrounded by a crowd of about 30 photographers and journalists. Nakana said of the book, “It’s a little silly, but I understand the interest in the book because it’s the first prince in our generation to put his life into writing.”
In his interviews, Harry has admitted that he has lost his father and brother, but that he craves—and even demands—their attention. He wants reconciliation and accountability, but on his terms.
Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have continued to refuse to comment on any of this – as they are on their way.
“He’s an angry young man,” said Dickie Arbiter, a former spokesperson for Queen Elizabeth II. He is making these accusations and allegations and does not support them with any other information about them. He’s just saying, ‘That’s what they did’ and he says he knows full well they won’t respond.”
Imagine if William reacted publicly, said Arbiter. If William came out and denied he pushed Harry at Nottingham Cottage, there would be a question from a reporter. “Well, what happened?” I mean, that perpetuates the story, right?
It will come down to “he says, he says, she says, she says,” said Arbiter.
In the book, Harry says that Charles implored the brothers to stop their constant arguing, saying after his father, Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021: “Please boys. Don’t make my last years miserable.”
It’s a sad line in a book full of sadness.
Valentine Law, author of The Courtiers: The Intrigue, Ambition, and Powerful Players Behind the House of Windsor, said that while Harry made an “astounding” array of revelations and allegations, the damage may not be as bad as some had feared.
He said that after Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997 “the status of the royal family was in a state of decline” but even then, “they somehow got over it”.
He said the monarchy “has an amazing staying power… I kind of feel that the royal family seems to have had enough goodwill towards it and they’ve weathered this crisis.”
The silence from Buckingham Palace is prompting people to “fill in the blanks” on what they think Charles and William’s response might be, said Pauline McLarran, a property expert at Royal Holloway, University of London.
She said: “Harry has said so much, people are likely to think, ‘Oh poor Charles, it’s like a Shakespearean drama with a prodigal son. I think people can relate to these fights very clearly but can’t really relate to them.'” Harry so much, at least on the British side, that he admits no wrongdoing, in fact everyone is to blame, even his famous wearing of Nazi uniforms is William and Kate’s fault.”
The other side of the royal family, McClaran said, is “very boring in nature, but now all of a sudden, with the emotional involvement, we’ll miss them if they’re gone. We sympathize with our neighbors saying, ‘What did Harry do now?'”
Things that seemed shocking when first posted seem even less so a few days later, and many commenters have said, well, families are fighting.
Except for the unusual circumstances of their birth – this is how it works with hereditary property. William heir. Harry cut. And more comfort every day with each child William and Catherine, Princess of Wales have.
“William doesn’t come across very well, and he seems to have a temper. Was he a little overbearing for his brother? Maybe, but we just have Harry’s word for it,” said Law. “But on the other hand, they’re brothers, and that’s the kind of brother fights. Harry also complains about everything and everyone starts to dismiss that.”
A YouGov poll published on Monday, a day before the book’s launch, found that only 26 percent of people had a favorable opinion of Harry, down from 49 percent in December – a record low for him. William’s popularity ratings have also taken a hit, with 69 percent saying they have a positive view of him, down from 77 percent last month.
Some authorities in the monarchy say Harry’s book will undermine the establishment, weaken it at home and abroad, and undermine the “soft power” exercised by the House of Windsor, both in America and in the Commonwealth.
Anna Whitelocke, professor of the history of modern monarchy at City University of London, said Harry’s allegations were “uneasy for the royal family”.
But “other than bad public relations and a sense that the British royal family drama is something of a thriller, the damage done to the royal establishment in itself is difficult to assess at this point.”
Whitlock added that “Certainly, in raising issues of the toxic relationship between the press and the palace, enveloping rival families, and tackling ‘spare parts’ and the ingrained misogyny and unconscious prejudice within the establishment, Harry challenges the monarchy to reverse and reshape. But whether it will happen, and if Whether the public is clamoring for it or not, remains to be seen.”