Prince Harry’s long-awaited memoir, “Spare,” doesn’t come out until Jan. 10, but dramatic details from the book were leaked on Thursday, after The Guardian obtained a copy.
Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have dominated headlines since their Netflix documentary, “Harry & Meghan,” came out last month. Critics were hard on the series for a lack of the bombshell revelations viewers were expecting, as reported by the Deseret News. But based on early revelations, it seems that “Spare” is filled with all the shocking royal gossip “Harry & Meghan” lacked.
With less than a week until the official release of “Spare,” here are some of the biggest details that have emerged from the book so far.
1. Harry had a physical altercation with his brother, Prince William
As previously reported by the Deseret News, Harry claims in the new memoir that he and his older brother, Prince William, began fighting over Harry’s relationship with his now-wife Meghan Markle. William allegedly labeled Markle as “rude,” “difficult” and “abrasive.”
According to Harry, William was “piping hot” when he arrived for their meeting and wrote that “it all happened so fast. So very fast,” reports The Guardian.
At one point, the argument got so heated that William knocked Harry to the floor.
“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,” wrote Harry, per The Washington Post.
2. Harry expressed concerns about Camilla
According to The Sun, Harry writes that he and his brother, William, urged their father, now King Charles III, not to marry Camilla because they feared she would be a “wicked stepmother.”
In the book, Harry compared seeing his stepmother for the first time to getting a shot. “This is nothing. Close your eyes and you won’t even feel it,” he wrote, per The Sun.
According to Harry, he and William told Charles they would warmly welcome Camilla into the family as long as he did not marry her. Harry says that although he and William approved of Camilla, they did not want Charles to marry her after the death of their mother, Princess Diana, reports The Sun.
The Sun acquired a Spanish edition of “Spare” after it accidentally got released early.
3. Teenage drug use
Harry also admitted to teenage drug use, according to CNN. He said that he tried cocaine for the first time when he was 17.
“It wasn’t very fun, and it didn’t make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different,” Harry continued, per CNN.
4. Harry killed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan
According to the BBC, Harry participated in six missions while serving as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan between 2012 and 2013. All of those missions involved death and Harry wrote that he killed 25 people during his time in Afghanistan.
“It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it leave me ashamed,” Harry wrote, per the BBC. “When I found myself plunged in the heat and confusion of combat I didn’t think of those 25 as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bad people eliminated before they could kill good people.”
5. William and Kate laughed at Harry’s Nazi costume
“Spare” also claims that Prince William and Kate Middleton “howled with laughter” when they saw Harry dressed in a Nazi costume for a party in 2005, reports Page Six.
Harry was attending a “Native and Colonial” themed party, and apparently asked William and Kate for advice on what costume he should wear. He was deciding between pilot or Nazi.
“I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said,” Harry wrote, per Page Six.
Has Buckingham Palace responded?
Buckingham Palace has stayed quiet amid the explosion of headlines surrounding Harry and the royal family.
According to Vanity Fair, sources close to William claim that he is “furious” about Harry’s recent revelations of private conversations held between the family, and that it has led to trust issues in their relationship.
“Spare” has not officially been released yet, but based on recent history it is unlikely that Buckingham Palace will comment on the book.
What we know about Harry’s ‘60 Minutes’ interview
A “60 Minutes” interview between Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper is set to air Sunday, Jan. 8, to discuss the upcoming release of “Spare.”
In a clip released Monday, Harry explained to Cooper why he chose to speak out publicly.
“Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife,” Harry told Cooper, per CBS News. “You know, the family motto is never complain, never explain, but it’s just a motto.”
To which Cooper responded, “There’s a lot of complaining and a lot of explaining … being done through leaks.”
Harry claimed that leaks are fed to the media from Buckingham Palace, and that the palace refused to release statements to defend him and his wife.
“So when we’re being told for the last six years, ‘We can’t put a statement out to protect you.’ But you do it for other members of the family. It becomes — there becomes a point when silence is betrayal,” Harry said, per CBS News.