In Spare, Prince Harry opened up about the members of his family, getting into details about events that took place behind closed door, but most of all he opened up about his personal life and his younger days as a working royal.
According to him, he faced difficulties and an identity crisis.
The Duke earned his nickname Spike during a gap year in Australia in 2003 when he worked as a ‘jackaroo’ at Tooloombilla Station. “Soon enough my mates at home got wind of this new nickname, and adopted it,” he said. “I became Spike, when I wasn’t Haz, or Baz, or Prince Jackaroo, or Harold, or Darling Boy, or Scrawny, a nickname given me by some palace staff. Identity had always been problematic, but with a half dozen formal names and a full dozen nicknames it was turning into a hall of mirrors.”
Harry, however, welcomed each of those nicknames no matter how confusing it was. “Most days I didn’t care what people called me. Most days I thought: Don’t care who I am, so long as it’s someone new, someone other than Prince Harry.”
According to the Prince, he was robbed of affection from his family during his younger days and was taught to keep distance from other people. “As a royal, you were always taught to maintain a buffer zone between you and the rest of creation. Even working a crowd you always kept a discreet distance between yourself and them.”
What’s most, the tittle of his all-tell memoir, Spare, came from his position in the family.
In fact, Harry opened up about a joke his father made about him.
On the day Harry was born, Charles allegedly told Diana, “‘Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare — my work is done.’
“On the other hand, minutes after delivering this bit of high comedy, Pa was said to have gone off to meet with his girlfriend,” Harry wrote, referring to now-Queen Camilla. “So, many a true word spoken in jest.”
According to Harry, William was favored due to being the older sibling. However, Harry acknowledges a benefit of being “the spare” since “I have more freedom than he does, right? So his life is planned out for him. I have more flexibility to be able to choose the life that I wanted.”
Harry was somehow aware that the publishing of his book would affect his relationship with his family even further, but he still decided to go for it. “I have thought about it long and hard,” he said. “And as far as I see it, the divide couldn’t be greater before this book.”
However, besides the bridges the book burnt, Harry still hopes to make things right and reconcile with his father and brother. “If we can get to the point of reconciliation, that will have a ripple effect across the world,” Harry said in an interview about his memoir. “I genuinely believe that, and that’s kind of what is pushing me. And if that doesn’t happen, then that’s very sad.”
Harry has consistently voiced his disdain for the tabloids, even accusing some royals of intentionally leaking negative stories about Meghan. Beyond seeking reconciliation, he aims to change what he refers to as “the codependency” between the tabloids and the royal family.
“There are some people, especially in the U.K., who have been led to believe that because you are a member of the royal family, somehow everyone owns you or has a stake in you,” he said. “And that’s a message that has been purely pushed out by the British tabloids, and it creates real problems within that family and that relationship. Of course, there has to be some sort of relationship, but where it’s got to now is incredibly unhealthy.”
Today, Harry and Meghan reside in California with their two children, Archie and Lilibet.
They have chosen to step back from their royal duties and are now working on developing independent careers. Despite his support for the monarchy’s continuation, Harry expresses concerns about its future generations. He is dedicated to promoting positive reforms within the institution.
“I also worry about other young kids within that [royal] family if this continues,” he said. “Because who’s to say that someone else doesn’t fill my shoes and that their partner, whether it’s a husband or a wife or boyfriend or a girlfriend, doesn’t get treated exactly the same as Meghan did?”
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