Prince Harry Memoir Delay: Making Edits Is Risky and Costly

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The question of Prince Harry's memoir release is a hot button topic in the Royal Family, including for the author himself, apparently.

Some reports have claimed that the Duke of Sussex is scrambling to make edits to his book ahead of its release—which has already been delayed a certain number of times—but one royal expert isn't convinced that it's even possible for him to do so.

"I haven’t heard anything about the books being pulped," Jonathan Sacerdoti told Express.

"There are times when publishers have to do that, for example if they lose a legal case because of something printed in a book."

Sacerdoti warned of a potential risk if edits have in fact been made. "If it’s true that Harry’s book is being rewritten or re-edited after it had been signed off and possibly even been produced to a nearly finished state, then there is also a risk that the earlier version could be leaked and made public even if a decision is made to change the focus or tone things down," he said.

"That’s always going to be a risk that will maybe make some people afraid.

"The further down the line it was, the more people will have seen it, and the more digital copies of it there will be in circulation.

"It’s virtually impossible for something to be truly withdrawn these days once it has been seen and sent around even just internally at the publisher.

"So even if it’s edited and changed before it’s published, the original text will always be a possible threat."

There are rumors that Prince Harry may even want to cancel the publication, period, and royals in the U.K. would certainly prefer that as well, but with a multi-million dollar contract hanging in the balance, a full cancelation feels highly unlikely. As ever, all that's left for us to do is wait and see.

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Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.