The spare. This is how they referred to him, his father, his grandfather and even his beloved mother. The supporting actor, plan B in the tree the royal genealogy; in which his brother william, two years older, was the number put on. With this nickname in mind, Harry, the second son of Charles and Diana of England, decided to thoroughly kick the board of the British monarchy, with his last act of contempt. “Spare” or “En la sombra” (published in Spanish by Plaza & Janés), her recent memoir, offers a stark look at her life in the bowels of the Real home.
A vindictive act that is the culmination of a history sown with rebellions: a somewhat unbridled youth, a girlfriend and wife outside of all official canons (American, commoner, actress, separated and mixed race) and an escape across the ocean, including renouncing his obligations as a member of the royal family.
That family that he indirectly accused of racism in an explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, and despising his wife, in an intimate Netflix series, for which he pocketed 100 million dollars. the same way he did his mother Diana in the interview he gave to the BBC before his death, taking out the palatial clothes in the sun; The Benjamin of the Princess of Walesreturns to plunge into a new crisis a monarchy that has just managed to wake up from orphanhood due to the death of Queen Elizabeth.
I just need love
“At times it feels like the longest text message from an angry drunk ever sent,” the BBC said of the letter. “Frank and intimate, it’s the small details that give an idea of how little we really knew,” says Vanity Fair.
Sanctified or demonized, Harry’s book, for which its author received 20 million dollars and whose English version broke all records (it sold 1.4 million copies the first day it was on sale and in Argentina, it has not dropped from the top of the bestseller ranking since it came out), has the same intentions contradictions than their fans and detractors. Harry can talk about reconciliation and, at the same time, insult his entire family in the same paragraph. One of lime and one of sand.
It tells about his first years of boarding school, his bad grades and his rebellious behavior. About how, for a while, he thought his mother hadn’t died, that she had escaped, and she was hiding somewhere away from the press. He describes his solitary life at home, drying his clothes on a radiator, planning the costumes he would wear to the supermarket, or smoking a “joint” after dinner. He confesses his panic attacks and psychedelic drug use, while recounting how he lost her virginity behind a pub. Glimpses of a common life combined with moments of absolute snobbery and zero awareness of the outside world.
For many in England, the book is, on the one hand, the confession of a lonely, somewhat narcissistic child, traumatized by the death of his mother and, at the same time, a somewhat disjointed tirade against the family’s mistreatment of his wife, Meghan Markle, starting point of family disunity. Throughout the book, the accusation to the media also flies over. Those to whom now, inexplicably, he resorts to tell first-hand about his intimacies. However, he really hates the pressblaming them for so relentlessly pursuing his mother to death and mercilessly tearing his wife and children to pieces.
But, according to Harry, it was not because she was a commoner (Kate Middleton is also) or separated, that Meghan was crucified. Not even her US passport or her acting profession were reasons for the attack, but her DNA. “First of all I had not prepared myself for racism. Neither for hidden racism, nor for obvious racism, vulgar and spit in the face,” he reveals in the book, reviling the headlines that referred to “Meghan’s exotic contribution to real genetics,” as well as family comments about the possible skin color of their children.
The pages of “In the shade” also reveal the magnitude of the conflict between William and Harry. A physical fight between the two was the turning point, after William confronted Harry at his home in Frogmore Cottage. He “he grabbed me by the neck, ripped the pendant he was wearing and threw me to the ground. I landed in the dog bowl, which cracked under my back. The pieces cut me,” Harry says. William encouraged him to return it: “You’ll feel better if you hit me.” He refused and kicked him out of his house. “In some things it was my mirror, in others my polar opposite. My dear brother, my archenemy, how did we come to this?” he wonders, after another frustrating encounter after her grandfather’s funeral.
His father also has his portrait. It presents him as old-fashioned, unworldly, and distantly affective., perhaps as a victim of his own circumstances and of that same emotional abandonment that Harry claims. “Your mother has not recovered,” she told him without hugging him, when she informed him of Lady Di’s accident. She also taunted him over the rumor that Diana’s supposed lover, the red-haired James Hewitt, was actually her father. “Who knows if I really am the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m your real father?” he philosophized with a smile. “One of the causes of this rumor was Major Hewitt’s flaming red hair, but another cause was sadism,” the prince opines.
Taken as a whole, however, it suggests a much warmer image of the current king. Charles coming into his room in her white nightgown and his slippers and leaving him loving notes or sitting with him until he fell asleep at night, stroking his hair.
No comments
“Never complain, never explain” is the categorical motto of the British royal family. And this is the strategy that all its members have clung to in the face of Harry’s onslaught. Although “Spare” has moved to the “top of the agenda” since it was published, on January 10, 2023, and the family is in “constant conversations” about “how to handle” the claims made by the prince, the Corona will never comment.
“Dignified silence is a proven format,” says Katie Nicholl, royal correspondent for “Vanity Fair” and author of “The New Royals.” “The palace is reluctant to provide answers, because once they do, they just feed the narrative and Harry has made so many accusations, it’s almost impossible to address them all.” For her, this silence of the institution is “a sensible strategy”, which is making Harry damage his public reputation. According to a YouGov survey, only 26% of Brits currently have a positive opinion of him. Unlike William, whose popularity has also declined, but with 69% of respondents in favor of him.
According to sources close to Buckingham, William is “furious and devastated.” The relationship between brothers would be broken and without return. In fact, it was the eldest son who wanted to go on the offensive and publish a statement, but his father stopped him. The king is a 74-year-old man and he doesn’t want this drama at his age. According to USWeekly sources, “Charles is angry and distraught that Harry has made so many embarrassing and damaging statements.which crossed the line in more ways than one.”
According to palace rumors, the book’s repercussion could also affect the invitation of harry and meghan to the charles coronation. And many see their attendance, should they be invited, as a final appearance of parted as family members. But Charles would like his son to be present at the coronation. That would prevent the royal family from being seen as vindictive and show their willingness to reconcile.
For an institution that is measured in centuries of history and tradition, it is important to present itself as a symbol of unity, especially at times when the House of Windsor is being overshadowed by what Nicholl describes as a “rival court in California.” With a monarchy in decline in popular sentiment, the reconciliation would be seen as the institution’s greatest act of progress. Everything is possible. Time and Harry and Meghan’s call for silence will tell.
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