Sex, drugs and a royal row: Palace stays silent as Harry unleashes bombshell revelations in new memoir Spare
6 January 2023, 00:10
The royal family has kept tight-lipped after a series of devastating allegations emerged from Prince Harry's book Spare.
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The autobiography – which has not yet been released in the UK but came out prematurely in Spain – sees the duke claim he was shoved to the ground in a heated argument with Prince William and admit that he took cocaine.
The Duke of Sussex said Charles made a joke about who his father was amid the rumours about Diana and James Hewitt, and spoke about a spat between Meghan and Kate over a "baby brain" comment.
And in personal revelations, he outlined how he lost his virginity in a field and asked his chauffeur to drive him through the Paris tunnel Diana died in at the same speed of the car she was in when the tragedy happened.
But the Palace has not responded to the claims and it is unclear if they will. During previous allegations made by Harry and Meghan in recent months, the Palace reportedly decided it would only respond when it felt it had to.
Read more: Prince Harry admits taking cocaine as a teenager 'to feel different'
In one passage in Spare, Harry said he was pushed to the ground during a row with William at Nottingham Cottage in 2019.
He said his brother called Meghan "rude" and "abrasive".
"It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dog's bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me," he wrote.
"I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out."
They exchanged insults as William said he was trying to help him, refusing a glass of water after the shove.
He said he also refused William's urge to hit him, then left before returning and telling him he didn't need "to tell Meg about this".
In another extract, Harry said his father made a joke about his parentage amid a backdrop of rumours that he was actually the love child of Diana and Major James Hewitt, who had an affair between 1986 and 1991.
The duke said one of Charles's favourite anecdotes was to tell about a time he visited an psychiatric hospital and met a patient claiming to be the Prince of Wales.
Finishing the story with Harry present, he said: "Who knows if I'm even your real father? Perhaps your father really is in Broadmoor, my dear son!"
Harry said he found that in poor taste given the conspiracies about his parentage at the time.
The duke also recalls an incident where Meghan told Kate she must have "baby brain because of the hormones". Meghan was then told she wasn't close enough to Kate to talk about that.
Meghan looked confused as to why Kate had taken offence, with William then pointing at Meghan to say the comment was "rude" and not how they did things, with Meghan then telling William to "take your finger out of my face", Harry claims.
Elsewhere in the book, Harry admits to taking cocaine as a teenager "to feel different", an apparent rebellion against what he called a "pre-established order", and that he lost his virginity in a field to an older woman.
He described asking his chauffeur to drive him to the Parisian tunnel where Diana died, asking him to go at the same speed as the car she was in, and said he fully realised she was dead after that.
The duke describes killing 25 Taliban in Afghanistan, says he asked his father not to marry Camilla along with William, and that Charles did not want Meghan at Balmoral.
Spare is due out on January 10 but it has already been released in Spain by accident.
In a separate upcoming ITV interview – extracts of which have already been released – Harry expresses a wish to get this father and brother back.
But it remains to be seen what kind of fallout his memoir will cause.
It will likely make any reconciliation even more unlikely after a controversial Netflix documentary, and ahead of King Charles's coronation this year.
