The big unboxing continues for Prince Harry. Not content with having emptied his bag at Oprah two years ago, then on Netflix two weeks ago, the “rebel royal” launched his autobiography simultaneously around the world on Tuesday, undoubtedly the biggest planetary literary event since the memoir of Barack Obama in 2020.
Some would say that at 38, Harry is a bit young to tell his life story. We will not contradict them. But the Duke of Sussex was obviously big on the potato, as evidenced by the 537 pages of this “people” flavor brick, which sometimes resembles a family settling of accounts, sometimes a charge against the British tabloids which have rotted his life and that of his marriage.
The tone is not vindictive either. Spare (The substitute, in French) rather resembles an exposure, even a form of therapy. Harry exposes himself and reveals his flaws as a psychologically damaged little prince, never recovered from the death of his mother. It certainly does not say everything. But says enough about his relationship to the “Firm”, about his ungrateful role as “substitute”, about this celebrity he did not choose and which torments him since adolescence, causing him recurrent panic attacks , which he watches while repeatedly smoking firecrackers.
No more public favor
These confidences necessarily make the book more interesting. More touching.
That said, no one in the UK seems to want to cry over Harry’s fate. After having been considered the darling of the royal family, the red-haired prince annoys today with his repeated lamentations and his less and less modest media interventions, including Spare is the most recent example. For some, his spoiled child crises are simply out of place, as the country goes through its worst inflation in 40 years. According to a YouGov poll published on Monday, 64% now have a negative opinion of the Duke of Sussex, compared to just 26% with a positive opinion.
One can also wonder what impact the book will have on a weakened royal family, which could be even more destabilized by this new washing of dirty laundry in public.
“The issue here is the timing, notes Elli Woodacre, historian of the monarchy at the University of Winchester, in the United Kingdom. We have just changed rulers and the public is reassessing its relationship with the monarchy. It’s an awkward moment and Harry’s book, with the unflattering light it sheds on the king, queen consort and heir, won’t help reaffirm the bond between the monarchy and the public. »
Buckingham has been careful not to comment so far. We will know at the coronation of Charles III, next May, if the bridges are broken between Harry and Buckingham Palace. The file is in any case far from closed, since the prince would have signed for four books with the publishing house Random House, Spare included. An agreement worth around 40 million US.
Sex, drugs and the Taliban in five excerpts
The first sexual relationship. The first seal. The first track. The Taliban massacre in Afghanistan. The fight with William. These are the main revelations of the Substitute. Extracts.
“I don’t remember how we got the weed. Thanks to one of my buddies at Eton, no doubt. Whenever we had any, our little battalion would entrench themselves in a tiny bathroom on the top floor of the residence, where we formed up in a surprisingly methodical or rigorous way. »
“I suspected it was about my deflowering. A very recent and not very glorious episode, with an older woman. She loved horses and treated me like a little stallion. A quick break-in, a little slap on the rump and presto, she had sent me back to the paddock […] It had happened in a field of grass, behind a crowded pub. »
“Of course…I was indeed taking cocaine at that time…At someone’s country house, during a hunting weekend, I had been offered a rail and I had consumed it in other occasions since. It wasn’t that fun, but it made me feel something different and that was the whole point for me. Experience. »
“Most of the soldiers can’t tell you exactly how many people they killed. But in the era of Apaches and laptops, everything I did during my two deployments to Afghanistan was recorded, timestamped. I could keep an exact count of the enemy combatants I had killed in real time. […] So my number: twenty-five. »
“Until then, I had been uncomfortable, but now it [William] was starting to scare me. […] He put down his glass, threw another insult at me, then threw himself on me. It all happened so fast. He grabbed me by the collar, breaking the collar I was wearing in the process, and threw me to the ground. I fell on the dog bowl, which broke under my weight and the pieces cut into my back. »