CRITICIZE“THESPARE”?

By Coco Ferrari '26

On January 10th, Prince Harry (The former Duke of Sussex) released his memoir “Spare” which depicts his personal life before and after his separation from the monarchy, breaking away from the Royal Family’s usual public relations strategy “never complain, never explain” This was a highly anticipated memoir due to his documentary having been released on Netflix just two weeks prior, and only seven days after publication it became a New York Times best seller However, the memoir faced mixed reviews on social media and in the tabloids Many readers tend to sympathize with Harry's traumatic upbringing in the royal family, but others have also criticized him for his lack of perspective and overall highly privileged point of view recognize his privilege, mainly using the terms ‘spoiled’ and ‘ghastly’ to describe his personality throughout the book.

Possible examples of this and possible reasons for backlash against Harry and Megan could be his and his wife Meghan's comments on the Frogmore Cottage located in London. Though the cottage is 1,324 square feet, and has an estimated cost of 2 4 million pounds, he describes it as “really small on a slight lean with low ceilings”. This comment was ridiculed considering an average UK citizen can hardly pay the average cost of a house (£296,000) in October 2022, which is £33,000 higher than this time last year

Not only has Harry received backlash from the public, but he has also received accusations from the Iranian and Afghan governments; most notably he has been accused of “war crimes” after he admitted to killing 25 Taliban fighters during his service for the British army. He refers to them as the “removal of chess pieces”, and has no regret in doing so. Iranian officials slammed him on Twitter for disregarding human rights and the execution of dual Iranian-British national Alireza Akbari

For example, the Guardian calling it “the laughing stock of the monarchy” Social media users have commented about Harry's lack of social awareness and state that he does not

Another one of the main points of criticism that tend to be pointed out by royal experts is that Harry and Meghan constantly asked for privacy and even left the UK entirely to reside in Los Angeles to avoid publication by the paparazzi. Yet, as said in the media by the daily telegraph, recently they made an entire documentary and memoir putting themselves into the public eye

Finally, Harry states that after his mother died, he and his brother begged their father not to marry their future stepmother, Camilla, Queen Consort, in fear of her becoming their ‘evil stepmother’

- “I remember wondering … if she would be cruel to me; if she would be like all the evil stepmothers in the stories

Reading these claims, people took to social media to support Harry and Meghan, praising Harry for speaking out on the trauma he endured as a child within his family.

So this leaves the question: do we criticize the prince for his possible crimes and spoiledness, or do we empathize with him for the traumatic childhood that the tabloids that now criticize him essentially created?

However, some readers empathized with Harry’s claims stated in the memoir. For example, some of the claims include Harry saying that his older brother, Prince William, had pushed him on the floor after a verbal altercation with his wife Meghan, allegedly calling her ‘abrasive’, ‘difficult’, and ‘rude’. Harry also states that Prince William “grabbed me by the collar, ripped my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”. Harry also recalls that his father, King Charles, had joked he wasn’t related to the Royal Family, referring to an affair that his late mother, Princess Diana, allegedly had with Major James Hewitt.