Anyone else feel like they’ve spent most of 2023 with Prince Harry? Wherever you look, whatever you listen to, he’s there. Talking about his book Spare.
I haven’t read it. But neither do I need to as every significant news line or note of interest was either trailed, broadcast in one of several interviews he did alongside the book’s publication or written up across the tabloid press.
You’ll not struggle to find an online list of the “25 things you need to know about Harry’s memoir”.
A combination of these factors means it will probably be both the most hotly anticipated book of 2023 and the least read.
I’m a big old bag of contractions when it comes to stories about the royal family and Harry in particular.
On the one hand I think he’s incredibly brave and principled to have taken the stand he has against the media and the bias and racist abuse that his wife Meghan has faced.
He is also a symbol of what a post-Elizabethan monarchy might look like. More politically aware of the deep rooted inequality across the Kingdom, more in touch, diverse and inclusive.
On the other hand, he’s immature and over-indulged.
And his plan to take on and defeat the tabloid press by feeding it feels naive and counter-productive.
Taliban kill claims will follow Prince Harry
He was challenged on this by ITN’s Tom Bradby in one of the many exclusive interviews he did.
His reply was to say that the Netflix documentary and the book were the two things he was doing to look back, and that everything he did from here on in would be forward facing.
One aspect of the book that Prince Harry will take into his new future, whether he likes it or not, are the claims he has made about his Taliban kill count while serving in Afghanistan.
He’s in the newspapers again today complaining that the passage in the book has been overspun and that he wasn’t boasting about the number after days of negative publicity.
So I took the time to read the actual section, all 1,000 words of it.
It’s true, it’s not boastful.
And it’s a pretty interesting insight into a type of modern targeted combat which uses the acute capabilities of Apache helicopters, IT and video technology. Hence why he’s able to put a number on it with some confidence.
The question is why, with all that detailed explanation, he felt the need to tell us the number at all.
It serves zero purpose other than to increase Prince Harry’s standing as a Taliban target.
That’s nothing short of stupid, but it’s also deeply dangerous. Not just for him and his family but for everyone who supports and protects the work he undertakes.
Who will pay to protect Prince Harry from the Taliban?
Take the Invictus Games for example which is basically an Olympics for injured service personnel across the globe.
It’s a brilliant initiative, which the Duke of Sussex has pioneered and built up over years.
It’s due to take place in Germany later this year and I suspect the projected security bill for that today is considerably higher than it was pre-Christmas.
The book and the TV documentary will have generated substantial income for his family.
It’s money which he needs to fight not one but three different court cases against different aspects of the UK media.
BREAKING: A senior Taliban leader has told Prince Harry that the militants he killed in Afghanistan were "not chess pieces, they were humans"
He adds: 'Not many have your decency to reveal their conscience and confess to their war crimes'https://t.co/6PVldZfU6W
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/i1MBwptQta
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 6, 2023
If he’s successful, the ramifications for the newspaper industry could be as big as the aftermath of Levenson and phone hacking.
If he loses, he could face financial dire straits.
Either way, there cannot – without access to the Royal fund – be substantial money to support Prince Harry’s own security as a key Taliban target.
He either didn’t make the connection between that reality and revealing his kill count. Or he did.
Both are unforgivable.
And it begs the question: might despair have been a better title for his book?
