bitchy | Prince William & Kate ‘refused to open the book which caused them so much suffering’

I don’t know why the Mail is still churning through a royal biography that came out last year, but here we are. Robert Hardman’s Charles III: New King, New Court, The Inside Story came out in January 2024 to widespread ambivalence. The book got a second life (briefly) later in the year, when Hardman added new chapters blaming Prince Harry for King Charles’s refusal to be anything other than a dogs-t father. Hardman also devoted some new chapters the Great Kate Disappearance, and it felt like Prince William’s minions were working overtime to complain and explain about the unfairness of that kind of scrutiny. Well, now the Mail has a new piece in which they’re emphasizing the palaces’ reactions to Prince Harry’s Spare. I’m sure some of this is old info, but I guess I missed the part about how William and Kate are selectively illiterate when it comes to Harry’s memoir. Some highlights from the Mail:

The Windsors were shocked by the name of Prince Harry’s memoir: The Royal Family was still reeling from the death of the Queen in September 2022 when they received another dose of incredibly bad news. Prince Harry’s apprehensively awaited memoir would be titled ‘Spare’. His publisher Penguin Random House made the announcement on October 27, just 49 days after the Queen’s death and the British public’s heartfelt goodbye.

They worried that Harry’s story would be sympathatic?? Perhaps due to its promise of ‘raw, unflinching honesty’, when the announcement was made, those in the royal court of King Charles III braced themselves for the worst. After all, it wasn’t hard to see the narrative Harry had been building for some time in his media interviews, but the name of the book all but confirmed it. He would be painting himself as a victim of the Royal Family who had been treated poorly and cast aside.

How Buckingham Palace reacted to the Spare news: On the day the announcement was released to the Press, it eclipsed all other royal news, despite the Royal Mint striking the first coins with the face of the new King. When asked about the King’s feeling on the incoming fire from the Sussexes and their associates, one Palace staffer referred to them ‘headwinds that we face from across the Atlantic’, according to Hardman. The author wrote: ‘That was one way of describing an extraordinary 12-week run of non-stop disobliging headlines and combative allegations, all of them entirely beyond the control of the King and his staff. Storm-force gales might have been a better metaphor. That this should all be unfolding in the first phase of a new reign might once have been considered disastrous. However, there were two unexpected aspects to these ‘headwinds’ which would work in Charles III’s favour. First, the constant diet of extraneous negativity, though awkward and at times embarrassing, made very little impact, according to polls, on public attitudes towards the monarchy. Second, it appeared to have no discernible impact on the King himself.’

They worried about the Caribbean: One of the biggest concerns about the upcoming Spare, according to Hardman, was the fact that as much of the Caribbean gets its news through US outlets, and the US media was generally more sympathetic to Harry and Meghan. There was concern that Megxit played directly into this debate and Spare could be a massive blow to the Firm’s reputation abroad. Meghan’s friend Omid Scobie revealed the controversial title for the autobiography was the Prince’s own choice and he had not changed the manuscript since the death of the Queen.

William & Kate refused to read Spare: Though no members of the Royal Family have publicly commented on Harry’s foray into novel writing, it’s understood the reaction behind the scenes was one of pain. But Hardman’s sources on Prince William and Catherine’s staff remain adamant that he and the Princess refused to open the book which caused them so much suffering. One of their senior advisers told the author: ‘Neither of them read it. He is a grown-up, 40-year-old with the BBC app on his phone so he knows what it says. But he has people like me to tell him what else he needs to know. We gave him the key points.’

The palaces worried about how much Harry had left out: Hardman wrote that for the Palace, the most worrying aspect of the book was the omission of ‘large chunks of more recent events’. It did not go unnoticed that Harry and Meghan’s wedding, their married life and their eventual departure from the royal world amounted to only less than a fifth of the memoir. Despite the couple having a jam-packed life of book worthy moments, recent events had been mostly omitted. ‘This suggested either a sequel or, perhaps, a memoir by Meghan in due course’, Hardman wrote.

[From The Daily Mail]

I remember reading multiple reports that Charles refused to read Spare as well, which I still think is one of the dumbest and most asinine decisions he’s ever made. Charles is known as a great reader as well – if he ever picked up Spare, he would find that his youngest son adores him and yearns for a closer relationship. As for Will and Kate… lol. I mean… I think both of them read parts of Spare, just as they obsessively watch, follow and copy everything Harry and Meghan do. But what an official cover story: the heir is too stupid, too illiterate and too stage-managed by staff to sit down and read a book written by his brother.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.