Close to a year after its initial release, a paperback version of Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir ‘Spare’ is set to hit shelves this October.
Surprisingly, the book, which was both praised and slammed for its intimate glance into the Royal family, won’t have any updates with Harry’s thoughts on his father’s reign thus far.
The paperback will be released in the US on October 22, with its UK release being two days later – coinciding with King Charles’ visit to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.
Spare’s publisher, Penguin Random House, also announced the Duke of Sussex’s book will be published in 16 languages worldwide.
In the time since its release, King Charles and Kate Middleton were both diagnosed with cancer and Harry’s two children were made Prince and Princess.
It was thought Harry may release an updated version with his reflections on recent events in his own family, but re-releasing the unchanged version appears to be an olive branch of sorts.
But it’s sure to stir up further unrest as it relives some disputed moments in the Royal family, including a major row between Prince William and his brother.
The book had plenty of bombshells, including the Queen joking about Harry’s bald patch in their last ever conversation.
• The King still wants his favourite old teddy bear with him for comfort – after being bullied as a child. ‘Teddy went everywhere with Pa.,’ Harry reveals. It was a pitiful object, with broken arms and dangly threads, holes patched up here and there.’
• Harry’s todger was frostbitten at William and Kate’s wedding – after a charity trip to Antarctica before the big day. Harry reveals ‘While the ears and cheeks were already healing, the todger wasn’t. It was becoming more of an issue by the day.’ He applied Elizabeth Arden cream to his crown jewel.
• Not willing to risk a rerun of the frosty todger, ahead of a trip to the South Pole, which Harry was warned was ‘even colder than the North’, he knew to take proper precautions. ‘I’d already frozen my penis, mate – wasn’t that the very definition of worst case scenario?’, he said of the potential chilly willy. Fortunately, Harry had a seamstress make him a ‘bespoke cock cushion’ – ‘square, supportive, sewn from pieces of the softest fleece’ – to tuck his todger instead in order to prevent any further damage.
• Harry reveals he was circumcised as a baby, saying ‘While it’s absolutely true that the chance of getting penile frostbite is much greater if you’re not circumcised . . . I was snipped as a baby.’
• Harry joked with the Queen about his bald patch just four days before she died. During their final phone call they discussed ‘turmoil at Number 10 and the severe UK drought. Harry joked that the grass was like his head – ‘balding and brown in patches.’ It made the queen laugh.
• Meghan was offered marmite crumpets when she first met Charles and Camilla for tea at Clarence House – and didn’t wear much make up because Charles ‘didn’t approve of women who wore a lot.’ Harry also asked Meghan to wear her hair loose, saying ‘Pa likes it when women wear their hair down.’
• Kate pulled a face when Meghan asked to borrow her lip gloss – in an ‘awkward moment’ in 2018. Harry claims that Meghan, having forgotten her lip gloss before the Waleses’ Royal Foundation Forum, asked Kate if she could borrow hers. Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and ‘reluctantly’ pulled out a small tube. ‘Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced.’
• When Harry first told William and Kate that he was dating Meghan Markle in 2017, ‘Willy’ told him to ‘f*** off!’ It turned out they were Suits Superfans. ‘I was baffled until Willy and Kate explained that they were regular—nay, religious—viewers of ‘Suits,’ Harry recalled. ‘ . . . All this time I’d thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family, but now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph.’
• When Meghan threw her arms around Prince William with a welcoming hug on their first meeting, it completely ‘freaked him out.’ Harry recalled ‘He recoiled. Willy didn’t hug many strangers. Whereas Meg hugged most strangers.’
• Charles and Camilla wanted Kate to change the spelling of her name to Katherine with a K – because they felt too many people in the family had the initial C.
• Stepmother Camilla changed Harry’s bedroom at Clarence House into her dressing room, shortly after he moved out.
• When 13-year-old Prince Harry met the Spice Girls on a trip to south Africa with his father, Baby Spice ‘fixated’ on his cheeks. ‘She kept pinching them,’ he recalls. But he identified with Ginger Spice – saying ‘A fellow ginger.’
• Harry recalled his father would exercise daily in his bedroom, often dressed only in boxer shorts, doing headstands or hanging from a bar ‘liked a skilled acrobat.’ The extreme extercises were prescribed by his physio to help ease pain in his back from old polo injuries.
• When Harry was born, his father wanted to call him Albert after Queen Victoria’s beloved husband – but Diana put her foot down and refused.
• Before leaving to serve in Afghanistan, Harry’s private secretary asked him to choose the spot where his remains would be interred ‘should the worse happen, Your Royal Highness. . . war being an uncertain thing.’ Harry had chosen the Royal Burial Ground.
• Prince Charles ‘was always sniffing things.’ Harry recalls ‘Food, roses, our hair. He must’ve been a bloodhound in another life.’
• As a prank at Eton, Harry allowed a pal to shave his hair. Horrified by the result, he ran upstairs to show his brother, Prince William – who laughed and asked what Harry had done. Harry recalls ‘He sounded like Stewie from Family Guy.’
Some have speculated the reason Prince Harry has not released an updated version is also to smooth his rocky relations with his family.
This weekend, it was revealed a royal reunion with Prince Harry could be on the cards if King Charles follows advice from spiritual leaders.
It’s hardly surprising for the head of the Church of England to seek ‘spiritual nourishment’ from religious leaders.
Charles has been doing quite a bit of it since becoming king, and those religious advisors appear to be encouraging reconciliation with his estranged son, a source told the Mail.
They said: ‘Charles misses his son. He still loves Harry and wants him back for personal reasons – regardless that he and Meghan do not [want to] return to royal life.
‘Harry will always be Charles’s much-loved son. He has faith that Harry could return. He misses the bond they once had, and the door will always remain open to him and his family. He does not want years of discord and disharmony clouding his reign.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
