Prince Harry’s Friends Are Apparently “Concerned” About Him
Research for his memoir, Spare, has taken him back to “some of the darker moments in his life.”
Prince Harry’s family reportedly aren’t the only ones concerned about Spare, his forthcoming memoir due out January 10—his friends, too, are seemingly “concerned about how far he’s going” in the book, and that there are some darker moments in the tell-all that give them pause.
According to True Royalty TV editor-in-chief Nick Bullen, Harry had been “talking to friends from his childhood” to help spark his memory around certain events, including “some of the darker moments in his life.”
“I know a lot of people have been saying to him, ‘Why are you going back over this old brand? Why are you digging all of this up again?’” Bullen says, per OK.
His inner circle is worried that revisiting the low points of his life—including no low point more devastating than the days immediately after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, when Harry was just 12—could put Harry “back in a negative headspace,” the outlet reports.
“I think those closest to him in the U.K. or those who were very close to him in the U.K. in the past are slightly concerned about how far he’s going,” Bullen says. “Now, whether he puts all of that in the book or the [Netflix] doc[useries], I don’t know, but he’s certainly been doing a lot of early childhood research.”
Bullen also says “certainly I think [that] the questions he’s been asking have been raising a number of eyebrows. And then those that are sort of closer to [King Charles] and the Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales—who are part of the Palace infrastructure—are absolutely bracing themselves for what’s about to come because nobody knows. History has shown us that when the Sussexes speak, they can throw out some pretty big accusations.”
When it comes to Spare, the royal family hasn’t “received a copy yet and don’t know what to expect,” an insider says, per Us Weekly. “It’s making them nervous.” Bullen says “I think it’s all a very closely guarded secret. We have a documentary [coming out] in December. We’ve got the book in January. And, you know, Netflix have paid a lot of money for this documentary…So Harry and Meghan are gonna have to say more than ‘We have a lovely life in Montecito, and we love each other.’ You know, there needs to be some meat in this sandwich.”
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OK reports that Harry is putting forth real effort “to strike a balance that will hopefully minimize the fallout caused” by the book’s publication, reportedly softening some of its contents in the wake of Her late Majesty’s death on September 8.
Apparently, some of his friends wonder why he is doing the book at all, but, according to Us Weekly, “it’s been a very rough process. And very difficult for him to recount certain traumatic events from his childhood…At the same time, he’s found it cathartic and at this stage there are no regrets.”
Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.