In his tell-all memoir, Spare, Prince Harry tells his own story in his own words.
Leaked excerpts from the explosive book have emerged ahead of its official January 10 release date. So far, the leaked passages reveal one shocking personal truth after another—including the way he lost his virginity, the day he recreated his mother’s last moments, and the brutal physical fight he had with brother Prince William.
Below, we break down all of the biggest revelations. Watch this space for updates.
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1 | Prince William allegedly attacked Harry.
Harry describes a heated conversation with his older brother, Prince William, that resulted in a physical altercation in 2019.
While at his home in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, Harry wrote that William called Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, "difficult," "rude," and "abrasive," per an excerpt obtained by The Guardian.
Insults were exchanged thereafter, Harry writes, and William claimed he was trying to help him. "Are you serious? Help me? Sorry—is that what you call this? Helping me?" Harry recalls telling his brother. The comment enraged William, Harry says. Attempting to deescalate, Harry offered William a glass of water, saying, "Willy, I can’t speak to you when you’re like this."
"He set down the water, called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast," Harry writes. "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. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out."
William urged Harry to hit him back, citing the fights they used to have as children, but Harry refused. William left the house but later returned "looking regretful, and apologised," Harry writes, recalling that William then told him, "You don’t need to tell Meg about this."
"You mean that you attacked me?" Harry said.
"I didn’t attack you, Harold," William replied.
2 | He lost his virginity to an "older lady."
The Duke of Sussex included a highly personal anecdote in his memoir: the moment he had sex for the first time.
Harry says he lost his virginity to an "older lady" who "loved horses very much." The moment, he says, was "a humiliating episode" that took place "in a field."
"I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and held me back… one of my mistakes was letting it happen in a field, just behind a busy pub," reads an excerpt obtained by Sky News. "No doubt someone had seen us."
3 | Meghan’s fight with Kate began after she said the senior royal had "baby brain."
An alleged disagreement that took place between Duchess Meghan and Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been widely scrutinized since Meghan refuted a tabloid story that claimed she made Kate cry in the days leading up to her 2018 nuptials to Harry. In a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan insisted that "the reverse happened."
Now, Spare offers more insight into the dispute. In an excerpt cited by Sky News, Harry writes that Meghan reportedly offended Kate during a phone call in which she said the senior royal, who recently gave birth, had "baby brain."
Meghan apologized for the comment, Harry says, but William "pointed a finger" at her in anger. "Well, it’s rude, Meghan. These things are not done here," William allegedly told her, to which she responded, "If you don’t mind, keep your finger out of my face."
4 | William and Kate encouraged Harry to wear his infamous Nazi costume.
Per a passage obtained by Page Six, Harry recalls debating between dressing as a Nazi or a pilot for a "Native and Colonial"–themed costume party in 2005. He allegedly sought advice from his older brother and sister-in-law.
"I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said," Harry reportedly writes, saying he then tried the costume on in front of them. "They both howled. Worse than Willy’s leotard outfit! Way more ridiculous! Which, again, was the point."
Harry went with the Nazi look, and soon after, a photo of him partying in a white military shirt and red swastika armband made headlines in the British newspapers and around the world. The incident came two weeks before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
5 | Harry and William urged Charles not to marry Camilla.
The royal brothers allegedly told their father, King Charles III, to not marry Camilla, the now Queen Consort, per an excerpt obtained by Page Six.
"Despite Willy and me urging him not to, Pa was going ahead. We pumped his hand, wished him well. No hard feelings," Harry writes. "We recognized that he was finally going to be with the woman he loved, the woman he’d always loved. Fate might’ve intended for him in the first place. Whatever bitterness or sorrow we felt over the closing of another loop in Mummy’s story, we understood that it was besides the point."
He reflected on his complicated relationship to his now stepmother. "I remember wondering … if she would be cruel to me; if she would be like all the evil stepmothers in the stories," he writes. "Willy had been suspicious of the Other Woman for a long time, which confused and tormented him. When those suspicions were confirmed, he felt agonizing remorse for not having done or said anything before."
Charles and Camilla officially wed on April 9, 2005. Following their union, it was announced that Camilla would not go by the Princess of Wales, the title famously held by Princess Diana.
6 | He recreated Princess Diana’s final moments.
In one heartbreaking passage published by People, the Duke of Sussex recalls driving through the same tunnel in Paris where Diana got into a fatal car crash in 1997. At the time, Harry was 23 years old and attending the 2007 Rugby World Cup semifinal in Paris.
"The World Cup provided me with a driver, and on my first night in the City of Light I asked him if he knew the tunnel where my mother … I watched his eyes in the rearview, growing large. The tunnel is called Pont de l’Alma, I told him," the excerpt reads.
Harry writes that he requested the driver go through the tunnel at 65 miles per hour, "The exact speed Mummy’s car had supposedly been driving, according to police, at the time of the crash. Not 120 miles per hour, as the press originally reported."
Once they passed through the tunnel, Harry recalls, "We zipped ahead, went over the lip at the tunnel’s entrance, the bump that supposedly sent Mummy’s Mercedes veering off course. But the lip was nothing. We barely felt it. As the car entered the tunnel I leaned forward, watched the light change to a kind of water orange, watched the concrete pillars flicker past. I counted them, counted my heartbeats, and in a few seconds we emerged from the other side. I sat back. Quietly I said: Is that all of it? It’s … nothing. Just a straight tunnel. I’d always imagined the tunnel as some treacherous passageway, inherently dangerous, but it was just a short, simple, no-frills tunnel. No reason anyone should ever die inside it."
He concludes that recreating her final journey did little to alleviate him from his grief. "It had been a very bad idea. I’d had plenty of bad ideas in my twenty-three years, but this one was uniquely ill-conceived," he writes. "I’d told myself that I wanted closure, but I didn’t really. Deep down, I’d hoped to feel in that tunnel what I’d felt when JLP gave me the police files—disbelief. Doubt. Instead, that was the night all doubt fell away. She’s dead, I thought. My God, she’s really gone for good."
7 | Harry spoke with a medium to contact his mother in the after life.
In excerpts cited by Sky News, Harry wrote that he sought the help of a woman who "claimed to have powers" that can relay messages from people who have passed on, including his mother, the late Princess Diana.
"You’re living the life she couldn’t. You’re living the life she wanted for you," said the woman, whom Harry reportedly does not refer to as a psychic or medium. The woman also told Harry that Diana was with him "right now," a message that made his neck grow warm and his eyes water.
The woman reportedly said that Diana was with the family when his and Meghan’s toddler son, Archie, broke a Christmas tree ornament in the shape of Queen Elizabeth II. "Your mother says … something about a Christmas ornament? Of a mother? Or a grandmother? It fell? Broke?" Harry recalls the woman saying. "Your mother says she had a bit of a giggle about that."
8 | He reveals his headcount.
Harry writes in his memoir that he killed 25 people while he was stationed in Afghanistan during his service for the British army.
"Most soldiers don’t know exactly how many kills they have to their credit. Under battle conditions, you often fire indiscriminately," he writes, according to an excerpt obtained by Sky News. "However, in the age of Apaches and laptops, everything I did in the course of two tours of duty was recorded and time-stamped. I could always tell exactly how many enemy combatants I had killed. And it seemed essential for me not to be afraid of that figure. Among the many things I learned in the Armed Forces, one of the most important was to be accountable for my own actions."
The Duke of Sussex spent 10 years in the army and went on two frontline tours to Afghanistan.
He continues, "So my number: twenty-five. It was not something that filled me with satisfaction, but I was not ashamed either."
"Naturally, I would have preferred not to have that figure on my military resume, or in my head, but I would also have preferred to live in a world without the Taliban, a world without war," he writes. "However, even for a casual practitioner of wishful thinking like myself, there are realities that cannot be changed."
