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Like many others I watched the Prince Harry interview on Monday evening, and I have to say … the bloke’s got a point. If I were in his designer shoes and the press and palace officials had printed lies about me and my family, then I’d want to state my point of view as well. Wouldn’t you? However, by stating his case and washing dirty linen in public, Prince H has shattered whatever mystique the royal family had left. We now see them as they really are… with the same jealousies and rifts that are in any ordinary family, but with more money and privilege.

Harry and Meghan were too popular, and the limelight had been stolen from senior royals. According to H and M, palace officials had fed the press derogatory articles so that the public would see them in a less than favourable light, with the press believing the information they had been given because it had come directly from Buckingham Palace. They back this statement up with glowing press articles that the palace had put out about Kate, but less kind articles concerning Meghan when the two women were doing the exact same thing, for instance cradling their pregnancy bumps.

I don’t see Harry as a ‘ginger whinger’, as many people do. In my opinion he is protecting the reputation of himself and his wife, which any husband would want to do. However, by setting the record straight and taking all the rotten eggs out of the basket, he has alienated the very people that he wants to be reconciled with. He has used the hated press and media to his own ends; to spill family secrets that royals would have preferred to remain private, and to promote his book which surprise, surprise, has zoomed to number 1 in the Amazon bestseller list (after all, he has to earn money now). Waterstone’s opened at midnight yesterday to cope with the rush of people eager to buy ‘Spare’. Yes, I’ve bought a copy but I didn’t queue up at midnight – Amazon delivered it. It’ll give me something to do apart from my WIP, because there’s not much work on at the moment. I’ll review it when I’ve read all 407 pages.

I’ve only read a few pages so far, but as a ‘for instance’ regarding telling the truth, Harry talks about a well-known journalist. He changes the letters of her name around to spell ‘Rehabber Kooks’ obviously to avoid litigation, but even I know who that is. Apparently there was a photo of Harry attending a rehab centre as part of his working day, but in order to sell newspapers she twisted the story around so the headlines read that Harry was now attending rehab. He also tried to get away by working on a remote Australian farm for a year (which he enjoyed), but the press eventually found him (he calls them ‘ants’ and says that once one ant finds him then many more will arrive) and he knew they would not leave him alone and so had to leave.

It’s quite alarming the amount of vitriol this book has generated on Goodreads. It was only published yesterday but it already has 465 one-star ratings from people who have written terrible comments about a book they probably haven’t even bought or are likely to read. The overall rating on Goodreads is now 3.21 (yesterday it was 2.86). WTF? The bloke is obviously hated by many people for trying to set the record straight.

Somehow I don’t think Harry’s father and brother will be rushing to Montecito; Harry is going to have to work hard to win back favour. Now that we all know who said what and who did what, H and M need to bring some kind of closure to the whole thing and enjoy living their lives in California with their children. If Charles and William want to welcome H and M back with open arms, then the ball is in their court. I expect much water needs to pass under the bridge to allow tempers to cool and maybe for Harry to finally come to terms with the death of his mother and his hatred of the press. Still… at least he hasn’t been consorting with known paedophiles…there may be hope for him yet.

N.B: ‘Spare’ sold 400,000 copies yesterday, and has become the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time. Yesterday I sold just 2 copies of my own books, but I’d still rather have my life than his and have the freedom to go where I want and do what I want in complete anonymity.

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