Prince Harry reportedly wanted to cancel the publication of his new memoir Spare after visiting his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, during her Platinum Jubilee last summer.
Sources at the publishing company Penguin Random House allegedly claimed the prince had decided to cancel the publication, according to the Times of London.
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“He’s pulled it. He doesn’t want to do it,” an unnamed source said the publishing team was told last summer. According to the source, the decision came a couple of weeks after Harry saw his grandmother in London for her 70 year anniversary as England’s monarch.
Sources told the outlet that they speculated that the prince was told there was “no way back” for him if the book was published while the queen was alive. They also speculated that the prince was attempting to protect the queen from the damage that the book would cause. Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, have been critical of the royal family during the queen’s reign but always claimed she was innocent of any wrongdoing.
The queen died in September, and Harry has stood by its publication ever since, even teasing the book in upcoming media appearances this weekend, ahead of its Tuesday release. But excerpts of the book were leaked earlier this week, after copies were mistakenly sold in Spain.
Surprising revelations in the book include the claim that Prince William, Harry’s older brother, started a physical altercation with him over Meghan. The royal family has so far declined to comment on any of the book’s bombshell claims.
Another surprise in the memoir included the prince claiming he killed 25 members of the Taliban while he served in the British Army in Afghanistan, and did not feel guilty because he viewed them as “chess pieces.” The reference to chess pieces drew backlash from the British military community and the Taliban. The book also touched on the death of Princess Diana when Harry was 12, and his use of illegal drugs, including cocaine.
The book was ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer and required some translating from American English to British, the publishing source said, because the memoir used words like “awesome” that was unfitting for a member of the British royal family, according to the report.
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The release comes a month after Meghan and Harry released a six-part Netflix documentary series that included insight into the couple’s decision to leave the royal scene, and accusations of unconscious racial bias with the royal family.
