Prince Harry’s new book Spare was published to the world on Jan. 10, 2023, receiving positive reviews among critics.

It has also revealed new stories about the hardships in his life and his broken relationship with the British royal family.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may have stepped down as royal members in January of  2020, but they have definitely not stepped down from the spotlight. Ever since they left for the U.S., Meghan Markle has received massive amounts of hatred across the world for “tearing the family apart”. However, Prince Harry’s new book reveals his story and the hardships he’s faced since he was just 12.

One of the toughest moments of his life the book described was on the morning of Aug. 31, 1997, when his father broke the news that his mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a car crash. He was just 12 at the time, and for years couldn’t accept his own mother’s death, thinking she had just disappeared. He wrote in the book, “I’d often say it to myself first thing in the morning, ‘Maybe this is the day. Maybe this is the day that she’s gonna reappear.’” When he was 23, Harry would finally accept his mother’s death when he went to Paris for the first time and went through the same tunnel his mother died in.

Harry says that he wouldn’t feel normal until he served in combat in the British army in Afghanistan when he finally felt normal in his life. However, he still had the pain from his mother’s death and in the book admitted to smoking pot and even resorted to drugs as he felt “hopeless” and “lost”. He’d finally go to therapy with experimental treatments involving psychedelics, Ayahuasca, psilocybin, and mushrooms. His therapy was when he truly recovered from the pain and trauma he’d been going through for 15 years. 

Harry claims he’s rekindled his happiness with his wife Meghan Markle in California; unfortunately, he has not been able to be at peace with the rest of the royal family.

In 2016, Prince Harry started a love relationship with Meghan Markle and would introduce her to the royal family. The book says that his father initially had a liking towards her, but his brother William and other members of the family were skeptical and mistrusted her based on four stereotypes: being American, being black, already having been divorced, and being an actress.

On May 19, 2018, the two would get married and showed a more modern and more inclusive side to the royal family. However, things were still not at peace; in the book, Harry described a physical altercation with his brother arguing about his wife. It ended up with William pushing Harry onto a dog’s bowl leaving cuts and scars on his back. They would apologize to each other afterwards.

One of the main criticisms of the couple was that they were sucking up all the fame by still holding their royal titles and leaking so much personal information even after they left England. Harry claims that he has tried to have conversations with his family privately, but it has often led to tabloids leaking false rumors, especially about Meghan, causing further damage to his family. Recently The Sun published a now-deleted column from a TV host expressing his hatred for Meghan and how he wishes for her to walk on the streets while people berate her with shame.

Prince Harry claims that the main reason for writing his book according to the New York Times, was because he found that neither his father nor his brother truly understood why he left England. Currently, Harry hasn’t spoken to neither his brother nor his father privately. He does wish to finally reconcile, be at peace with his family, and apologize for whatever trouble he and his wife have caused. But as far as becoming a full-time royal member again, he says he cannot see that ever happening again.

https://www.cbsnews.com/dfw/news/prince-harry-interview-transcript-60-minutes-2023-01-08/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/prince-harry-royal-family-spare-memoir-release-meghan-william-charles-rcna64041