The memoirs of Prince Harry, which will be published next week, continue to carry their share of revelations. The latest evokes his stay in Afghanistan…
The flood of revelations continues. While his memoirs, collected in the book Spare, “Le Suppléant” in French (Éditions Fayard, 26.50 euros), will be published next week on Tuesday, January 10, the press continues to reveal the content of the work which promises to be explosive. Last explosion to date: Harry reveals in the book to have killed 25 people when he was engaged in Afghanistan. The helicopter pilot, who served in the British army for 10 years, including twice in Afghanistan, describes them as “Taliban” according to the Telegraph, which had access to his memoirs.
“It seemed essential to me not to be afraid of this number. So the number for me is 25. It is not a number that fills me with satisfaction, nor that embarrasses me”, indicates the one who is now out of the royal family. Harry compares these deaths to “chess pieces” that had to be put out of play. A mindset forged in training that teaches that you can’t eliminate a target “if you consider them a person”.
The Nazi uniform, the fault of William and Kate?
While the prince harry has still not published his memoirs, the tabloids have been having a field day since the beginning of the week. The hilarious Sun, reports another anecdote from the book which refers to a very old scandal. In early 2005, Harry caused an uproar after he was photographed in Nazi uniform at a costume party. The stolen photo was front-page news just two weeks before Holocaust commemoration ceremonies in the UK. In The Alternatethe Prince says that it was William and Kate Middleton who encouraged him to choose this disguise in bad taste, when he was 20 years old.
Harry also admits in his book to having “of course” taken cocaine in the past, as indicated by the Sky News channel. “At someone’s house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line and then I took it again”, can we read in the book. “I was a 17 year old who wanted to try anything that would challenge the established order […]. It wasn’t very fun, it didn’t make me particularly happy”, completes the Prince who nevertheless admits that the drug made him feel “different”.
Harry and William’s heated argument
The memories of Prince Harry seem full of many other revelations, including family. Harry admits, for example, having called on a person to enter into contact with his deceased mother Diana and having felt her “energy, he also says to be opposed to his father’s remarriage to Camilla, fearing that she would become an “ugly stepmother”. He also recounts a “humiliating episode”, that of his deflowering with an “older woman”, who, in love with horses, had treated him like a “young stallion”, ending their antics in the open fields with a spanking. But it is the relationship with his brother that caused the first big surprise, on the sidelines of the book.
According to Guardian this time, an argument with Prince William, at his brother Harry’s London residence in 2019, would indeed have gone wrong. According to the elements reported by the British daily, William would have described Meghan as “difficult” and “rude” during a stormy conversation. Words that would have prompted Harry to call his brother a “parrot of the press”. According to the account of the youngest, William would not have been able to keep his calm at that moment and would have grabbed his brother “by the collar”, “ripped off his collar and [l’aurait] thrown to the ground”. Harry wrote of having “landed on the dog’s bowl, which broke under [son] back”, the pieces causing him “scratches and bruises”.
In remarks released by ITV News, Prince Harry gave more details about the violent altercation he allegedly suffered. The Prince said he saw the “extreme anger” that emanated from his brother William during this argument. The Duke of Sussex even went into more detail stating that he thought William wanted to be ‘hit back’. He then declared on the British chain that before the “reconciliation”, there must be a certain “responsibility” to be taken on the side of the royal family.
A flood of interviews, the silence of the royal family
After a shock interview given to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 and her documentary series Harry & Meghan broadcast on Netflix a few weeks ago, the publication of Prince Harry’s memoirs is therefore once again causing a lot of ink to flow. On the side of Harry and Meghan, exiled in the United States, the interviews and statements are linked and follow each other. Press interviews, books, documentaries… The royal family, for its part, continues to wallow in silence so as not to give more echo to these outbursts. The latest turbulence before the release of Harry’s memoir: this Sunday, January 8, two promotional interviews are being broadcast on American television, one on CBS and the other on ITV News. In an excerpt shared on the site of the chain, we see Prince Harry answering a simple question: is there not in the publication of his book an invasion of the privacy of his loved ones? The Duke felt that to see it as a public unboxing “would be the accusation of people who do not understand – or do not want to believe – that [s]his family informed the press”.
Harry indeed accuses his brother and his father, King Charles III, of having revealed private information about the exiled couple which was completely confidential. Words that he also hammered home on CBS, harshly judging the royal family. “When we’ve been told for six years, ‘we can’t make a statement to protect you,’ but they do for the rest of the family, there’s a time when silence is betrayal,” said he castigated.
Faced with Oprah Winfrey a few months ago, Harry always said he “adored” William. “We have been through hell together (…) but we are on different paths”, he admitted, before concluding that “time heals all things”. It may take a little more, given the vigor of the Prince’s latest attacks on the monarchy.