Last night I finished listening to Spare by Prince Harry. It is lengthy; it took me eight days to finish all 15 hours and 40 minutes. (Note: The hardcover is 410 pages.) Prince Harry’s narration reflects his anger at times, as well as his softness when speaking about his mother, the late Princess Diana.
I do feel, after listening to Prince Harry’s life story, that losing his mother at 12 set him on a life’s course that was difficult for him to manage. Looking back, I feel that he desperately needed counseling at the time. As he grew, the only things that seemed to fill the void were his trips to Africa, joining the military, and meeting Meghan.
After much reflection on this book, I think Harry is quick to blame everyone else, the press, the paparazzi, the Royal Family for the predicament he finds himself in today and takes little or no accountability for his actions. Yes, the Royal Family is not perfect; no family is, but to air all of the dirty laundry about your family and expect them to be okay with it and apologize is ludicrous at best. I don’t know how Harry thinks this book will fix things.
It may sound like a good idea to “speak your truth”, but actually doing it is something else altogether. I read an opinion piece last week by Patti Davis, daughter of the late President Ronald Reagan. It was entitled, “Prince Harry and the Value of Silence.” Google it; it is a great read. Ms. Davis reflects on her “tell-all” book about her family that she wrote years ago. Now 70-years-old she regrets writing the book and apologized to her father, who had Alzheimer’s disease at the time, for writing about their family. Time gives one perspective. Each person in the Royal Family could also write their truth, but how does that help the situation?
From the outside, Prince Harry has it all; a wife he loves, two beautiful children, a gorgeous home and the ability to travel anywhere whenever he desires. When feeling stressed, Harry can travel to Africa on a whim, unlike most people. Harry wants to be a royal and he wants to be a commoner when it suits him. He believes the book is an olive branch to mend the rift with his family. However, I think his revelations in the book are going to make a reconciliation extremely difficult.
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