Britain’s Prince Harry, who published his autobiography ‘The Spare’, insisted that he was “not trying to bring down the monarchy, but to save the royal family from them.” Prince Harry, who married Hollywood actress Meghan Markle in 2018, has been steadily exposing his feud with the royal family since separating from the British royal family in 2020.
According to a British Telegraph report on the 13th (local time), Prince Harry said in an exclusive interview with the media, “The autobiography could originally have been two volumes of 800 pages.” The original draft of the autobiography was said to be twice as long, opening up the possibility of further disclosure of the British royal family.
The autobiography, published on the 10th, is over 400 pages long, and the title, Spare, means that he is the second son of King Charles III of England and is a reserve for his older brother, Prince William. The interview was conducted at the home of Prince Harry and his wife in California, USA, before the book was published.
Prince Harry said he selected the contents after 50 video conferences with the ghostwriter. “There are things I don’t want the world to know about what happened with my father and brother, because I don’t think they’ll ever forgive me if I do,” he explained.
Prince Harry also claimed that he felt responsible for reforming the royal family for the sake of his older brother Prince William’s three children, Prince George (the Prince’s eldest son), Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis (the second son). “I know that at least one will be a ‘spare’ like me, and that hurts and worries me,” he said.
Prince Harry’s autobiography is a hot topic every day with record sales and controversial content. According to the New York Times (NYT), on the first day of publication, Spare sold more than 1.43 million copies, including pre-orders, in the UK, the US and Canada.
The contents of the autobiography caused controversy because it contained sensitive issues between himself and the royal family. In the book, he deals with Taliban personnel killed during the Afghan war, the fact of inhaling cocaine and hemp, and conflicts within the royal family, including Prince William and his wife.
However, after the publication of his autobiography, public opinion in Britain towards Prince Harry has turned coldly. As a result of a survey of 1,691 adults by YouGov, a British online polling company, on the 10th and 11th, Prince Harry’s favorability rating was 24%, which was 2 percentage points lower than the previous survey. Negative opinions rose 4 percentage points to 68%.
After independence, Prince Harry and his wife interviewed American broadcaster Oprah Winfrey, and continued to expose the British royal family through the global online video service (OTT) Netflix documentary ‘Harry and Megan’.
Oh Jeong-min, Hankyung.com reporter [email protected]
