Harry’s autobiography “Spare” is published: “The disenchantment has taken place”

Status: 01/10/2023 01:09 am

Prince Harry’s book “Spare” does not reflect well on the British royal family. The spicy content has been discussed for days, today it appears. The palace has been silent so far.

By Gabi Biesinger, ARD Studio London

Some London train station and airport bookshops had opened an extra hour so that the impatient could get their copy of Harry’s autobiography at midnight. Although many piquant details were already leaked out in advance, the book is at the top of the list of pre-orders: “I really want to read the book now and I have every sympathy for both of them,” says a Briton.

“This is so embarrassing”

But not all Britons see it that way. When Harry repeated his allegations against the palace on ITV on Sunday evening that his own family, especially his brother William and stepmother Camilla, had fed the press negative stories about him and his wife Meghan, the ratings for the parallel crime thriller were on the BBC significantly higher.

Malicious comments predominate on Twitter. “Harry turned the British monarchy into a soap opera like the Kardashians’ it’s so embarrassing,” it reads.

And: “We had to hit the pause button during the interview to burst out laughing when Harry said the reconciliation talks with his family could only be held in private.” Bottom line: Harry obviously knows no irony. And passers-by in Windsor think that Harry divulges far too many intimate things in the book that one would rather not have known: he should have kept it to himself, it is said on the street.

The palace falls silent

First sex at seventeen in the field behind the pub, frozen genitals after Antarctic expedition, drug experiments and beaten down by your own brother. Journalist Tom Bower, author of the book “Revenge” about the ongoing quarrel at the Windsors, and not exactly located in the Harry team, is shocked and is therefore in line with the British tabloid press: “It’s hypocritical, rampant, dishonest of Harry. He is a shame. We can be glad he was just the replacement and not the heir to the throne, he would be a terrible king.”

The newspapers read that people behind the palace walls were shocked by the events. In addition, the palace shrouds itself in gracious silence. That’s the best strategy, says constitutional lawyer Robert Hazell: “There’s absolutely no reason for the royal family to address these allegations. It would be rather dangerous to engage in a ‘statement versus statement’ dispute.” he says. “The royal family has an interest in the approval of them as an institution, which is to be separated from the sensitivities of individual family members. They have survived many crises. “This is a family crisis, not a monarchy crisis.”

“The spook isn’t over”

Others are less optimistic that the insults and back-and-forth babble will simply slip past the monarchy, especially since King Charles has only been in office for a few months. “You have to do things and do things quickly,” said Russell Myers, Royal Editor of the Daily Mirror.

“The curtain has gone up, everything is public, the disenchantment has taken place,” he says. Now the public must readjust their relationship to the monarchy. “And the spook isn’t over. As long as they can make money from it, Meghan and Harry will continue.”

Prince Harry: His autobiography “Spare” is published

Gabi Biesinger, ARD London, 10.1.2023 00:07

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