News24.com | William tackled Harry to the ground, Charles joked about being his father: 14 Bombshells from Spare

• Prince Harry's memoir,Spare, has officially hit bookshelves, and become the UK's fastest selling non-fiction book ever.
• The Duke of Sussex, who exited his royal role in 2020, has painted an eery picture of members of the royal family.
• Here, we look at revelations from the book as Harry details his estranged relationship with his father, King Charles, his elder brother, Prince William, and more.

Prince Harry's memoir Spare has officially gone on sale, with much of its contents having leaked days before.

The book reveals details about Harry's relationship with his father, King Charles, his elder brother, Prince William, and other members of the British royal family that have never previously been published.

As is usual for the royal family, spokespeople for Charles and William have declined to comment, though insiders have revealed the palace has been busy behind the scenes.

We look at some of 14 key revelations outlined in the book:

1. Physical altercation

Harry claims his older brother Prince William attacked him during an argument about his wife Meghan.

"He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor," he writes in the book, according to The Guardian.

"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."

2. 'Arch-nemesis'

Harry refers to William as his "beloved brother and arch-nemesis".

"There has always been this competition between us, weirdly," he explained in an interview with the US television show Good Morning America set to air next Monday. 

"I think it really plays into, or is played by, the 'heir/spare' [issue]," he added, referring to his traditionally diminished royal role compared to William, who is first in line to the throne.

3. 'Misery'

The brothers' father, King Charles III, pleaded with his sons to stop fighting at a meeting after the funeral of his father, Prince Philip, in April 2021.

"'Please, boys. Don't make my final years a misery,'" he told them, according to the memoir.

Harry also describes the "secret meeting" as resembling a duel rather than reconciliation.

William claimed he did not know why Harry had exiled himself in the United States, Harry writes, while his father "was looking at me with an expression that said, 'me neither'".

4. 'Unfunny joke'

Harry reveals that Charles used to joke about whether he was really his father.

"Who knows if I'm really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I'm even your real father?" Harry writes, according to The New York Post.

"He'd laugh and laugh, though it was a remarkably unfunny joke, given the rumour circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy's former lovers: Major James Hewitt."

Harry's mother, Princess Diana, had a five-year affair with Hewitt, an ex-cavalry officer, which gave rise to persistent speculation that he could be Harry's father.

Noting that Hewitt has similar "flaming ginger hair", Harry lambasts the claim as driven by tabloid "sadism".

"My mother didn't meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born," he notes.

5. 'Heir and spare'

Harry writes in the book about his father's delight when Diana gave birth to a so-called "spare" in 1984.

Charles supposedly told his wife that Harry's arrival meant she had now given him both an heir and a spare - and that his work was done.

ALSO READ | Spare: The complicated and painful truth behind Prince Harry's memoir title

6. Camilla

Harry states that he and William "begged" their father not to marry Queen Camilla, with whom Charles was having an affair while married to their mother.

He recounts that the brothers said they would not stand in the way of Charles' relationship with her, but asked that they did not marry.

Harry also details how he felt when meeting Camilla for the first time, likening it to having an "injection".

"I remember wondering... if she would be cruel to me; if she would be like all the wicked stepmothers in the stories," he writes. 

7. Drugs

Harry acknowledges using cocaine on several occasions when he was a teenager, saying he was "willing to try almost anything that would alter the pre-established order".

But he adds: "It wasn't very fun, and it didn't make me feel especially happy as seems to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different."

8. Afghanistan

9. Dressing as a Nazi

Harry says he was encouraged by Prince William and his wife Kate to go dressed as a Nazi to a fancy dress party in 2005, in what he has described elsewhere as "one of the biggest mistakes of my life".

10. Fight over wedding venues

Harry claims the royal household dragged its feet over the date and venue for his wedding with Meghan.

He says that when he consulted his brother about the possibility of marrying in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's Cathedral, William said he could not marry there because they had been venues for the weddings of Charles and Diana and of William and Kate respectively.

Instead, William suggested a village chapel near Charles' home at Highgrove House in southwest England.

Harry and Meghan finally got married at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in May 2018.

11. Meghan's heated exchange with William

12. Arctic trip

13. Virginity

Harry recounts losing his virginity in a field behind a busy pub, to an "older lady" who "loved horses very much".

But he says it was a "humiliating episode" and rued it happening in the open, where they might have been seen.

14. 'Your mother is with you'

Harry recounts seeking help since moving to California from a woman who "claimed to have 'powers'" and an ability to relay messages from the dead.

The Duke of Sussex does not describe her as a psychic or medium but writes that he felt "an energy around her" as soon as they met.

"Your mother is with you... right now," he says the woman told him. Harry says his neck grew warm and his eyes watered.

"You're living the life she couldn't. You're living the life she wanted for you."

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