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Like thousands of others I was interested to read Prince Harry’s memoir to see how much it differed from the ‘truth‘ told in newspapers and on various social media sites.

Harry’s childhood was cut short at age 12 by the death of his mother Princess Diana, seemingly the only person in his life who up to then had showed him any love and warmth. From what I’ve read the rest of the royal family are cold-blooded and undemonstrative, and although the love is there they are unable to show it. Diana’s death left a gaping hole in his life, and he eventually needed therapy in order to be able to deal with constant depression, panic attacks, and to be able to grieve and come to terms with the loss of Diana’s physical presence (for years he told himself that she was not dead and that she would eventually return).

The depression he suffered in his teens and twenties due to his mother’s death and also to constant paparazzi intrusion (he called it being ‘papped’) caused rather un-royal behaviour, which labelled him as the ‘naughty’ one. After he met Meghan the paparazzi never left him alone for one minute. They put trackers on their cars, peeped through windows, harassed Meghan’s family and friends for any snippets of information, and caused Harry and Meghan to have to live cloistered behind drawn shutters, frightened to go outside. Drones and helicopters continually circled overhead, and paparazzi arrived by the boatload if they ever went on holiday. This media circus caused jealousy with senior members of the royal family as the limelight was taken away from them, and also more feelings of panic and despair for Harry as his wife failed to cope with being constantly harassed by the press, eventually wanting to end her life. I must say that by the end of the book I hated the paparazzi as well; they grew rich on thousands of pounds given to them by editors, who then published lies and trash in order to sell more newspapers (by the way, I haven’t read a newspaper for years).

I’d say that for all his wealth and privilege, Harry’s teens and twenties were not happy. He could only find freedom from the paparazzi in the Army, and even then had to be pulled from the frontline duty that he loved because of then being third in line to the throne. It’s only in his thirties that he eventually found love and happiness with Meghan, but even then this has been spoiled again by the paparazzi and by Meghan receiving death threats. They had to eventually forego royal duties, become financially independent from King Charles, and move to gated and secure accommodation in the USA in order to gain some peace and tranquility for themselves and their children.

I enjoyed reading this warts-and-all memoir, but I’m glad I get to live my life in complete anonymity!