Spare

if Harry was a bit smarter, he could have eloped with Meghan. Faked his own death, and they would live out their lives anonymously in Botswana.

yea but family obligations....
Or...Harry could have married Pippa, even if she didnt like him. Then both brothers would have married sisters and it would have stayed in one family. People would have gotten over the whole middleton middle class thing.

But then Harry would meet Sally, or Rachel or someone else and eventually had an affair, cos life is too boring with brother Wills.

William would have written his own book called 'Me first'.

Im interested if Harry mentions anything about his faith (or lack of) in the book.

I do know that Meghan had been baptised into the Anglican church and we can see they did have a church wedding. But I dont know if Harry personally believed or has a relationship with Jesus Christ. You cant always tell just by looking at someone and whats reported in the media, or even from what they may say.

Just would be interesting if he has or if hes seeking or what. Harry and Wills were churchgoers when they were boys they went with their grandparents and dad but...now they are adult, I wonder what each believes.

Harry wasnt keen on his mothers new age ideas and thought her fortune tellers psychics etc friends were weird. He called one 'healer' someone who liked 'crystals, candals and cats'. lol

Apparently Diana got all that from Fergie who was into horoscopes.

He talks about his life, growing up and his mom dying in the first part of the book. The second section is mostly about his military service and the third part is meeting an marrying Megan.

Not really talking about faith and or what he does or doesn't believe. I'm on page 352 and there are 410 pages in the hard back book.

Does he write much about his dad and stepmother? Would you say from the book that he is agnostic?

He loves his Pa as he calls him. Both Harry and William asked their Dad not to marry Camilla but we know how that turned out. He believes some of the press leaks came from his Pa and Camilla in order to put them in a better light to the British people. He writes several things about his Dad, trips they took and trying to talk to him about different situations and didn't feel like he listened much.

I don't get that he is an agnostic from the book as he just really doesn't talk much about religion at all one way or the other really. I am almost finished with the book probably will finish it tomorrow 1/25/23.

well the royals have their own PR and tell the court/royal reporters what to publish, but if any unapproved or unauthorised press write things against them, they dont like it.

Also their servants have confidentiality agreements. But its like that in any organisation, they dont really want bad press.

When Marion Crawford, the nanny wrote a book about the Little Princesses she was shunned and the toyals called it 'doing a Crawfie' . It was nothing scandalous, actually a sweet little book about their childhoods but still she did it without their permission.

The royals can and do lie by not telling the uncomfortable truth of the situation and by stopping others from speaking out. If Diana had never written her tell all book, the royal family would have expected her to keep mum about the affairs both were having, and pretend they were happily married when they were not.

Camilla and Charles would have continued sneaking around and everyone would have pretended she was not his mistress who was married to someone else. They would have said they were just friends.

I finished the book Spare.

I personally loved it. To me it was Harry trying to get his Pa and William to listen to him and what was bothering them which was mostly the hounding of the press and the wrong and out right lies being spread.

He over shares in that I am not sure we needed to know about his frost bitten private part but the way he related the story it was humorous.

I can relate to Harry on two aspects of his story he blocked out a lot of his memories around the time his mother died. I also blocked memories when I found my mother dead at the age of 8. I also relate to him when he says he made up a story that she was in hiding that she wasn't really dead as I also did that after my dad died when I was 12 I would tell myself that they were traveling far away and I could never see them again rather than acknowledge that they were both in fact dead and gone.

I feel for Harry and Megan and the unrelenting press as they really just want to be left alone and raise their family but you say they are royal and don't get that luxury... well there is the crux of the matter.

I did read that he went to a lady and sounds like she was a spiritualist as he talks about her seeing his mother by him right then and talking about she loves him and wants the best for him.

I am not too keen on that but it doesn't mean he is an agnostic either.

Wonder if Harry's brother or pa will actually read the book.
They may have to, but a lot of family would refuse to read what their own write about them. I mean give it a chance. The whole Crawfie thing was...she dared write about the royal family, but it was her own experiences with the, and royals didnt seem to regard the content of it - just judged it that she wrote something and didnt even read it.


I am on waiting list for Spare at the library but will be a while.

Im reading The Heart has its reasons instead. It's Wallis Simpsons memoir.
Like Meghan, Wallis was on only child except her dad died when she was very young. Like Meghan she was a divorcee. And an American, who married a royal but otherwise thats all they have in common....

The problem with the press is its just daily, they have to come up with some copy and royals whatever they do seem to be an easy target.

Leaving England and living in exile doesnt always mean they will be left alone..the press will find ways of following them anywhere and if they cant find them they will just make up stories anyway.

Im not sure what they can really do about it, by virtue of their position, and doing their own press just adds fuel to the fire in many ways. Greta Garbo famously said 'I want to be (left) alone' but she was a big movie star and relied on publicity to be that star.

Even when movie stars stop acting and being stars they may get followed.
Diana would put on a wig and disguise herself when she was going with her heart surgeon. She stopped doing royal tours and out in the public for a time. But the press kept following her. It was like she had made a pact with the devil when she married into the royal family.

The royal family themselves keep the cameras on them...they rely on court reporters to document their every move. But they cannot police what every single person says about them and if someone has it in for them they cant just chop their heads off anymore for treason like cult like dictators can and do in other countries. The british monarchy no longer has that much power over people.

one thing that puzzles a lot of people is why the royals would pay so much attention to bad publicity anyway. They dont need to read what others say about them...people will talk anyway.

According to Meghan she never paid any attention to the royals before she met Harry and never even really knew who he was. Shed never read any of the stories about him and wasnt interested.

But now shes the centre of attention (whether for good or ill) she seems not to like it or realise that yea thats what being royal is about. Posing endlessly for photos. Cutting ribbons. Having your private life talked about all the time in Hello magazine.

Prince Charles never bothered what anyone said about him, and his first wife Diana though would read all the papers for what they said about her. She cared what people thought...he didnt.

To be royal you have to be seen doing stuff in public, thats the role. Or you could just hole up in your palace and not see anyone, though people will still try and peer into the palace windows if they ever get close enough. If you dont want that kind of life, you change your name, move to a different country, and become anonymous. Might pay to fake your own death first though, so people arent wondering 'what happened to??

If Harry was smarter he would have just taken the role life dealt him and gotten on with doing a similar job his father was/is doing. Helping his nation achieve a better economic future.

Left ol Meghan alone and just gotten to work regardless that he was never going to be King. It's not like there wasn't room for him to work with his father....especially after Brexit. Plenty enough to do after that.
Instead it was a bunch of "woe is me" schlock that is going to make him a pariah of the family...and broke.
"Suck it up buttercup " and get it into gear! Figure out how to clean a bathroom and fix your own cup of tea. Maybe even get a job doing something.

I think he seemed to be quite upset he wasnt allowed a more frontline role in the army.
But that was cos he was...royal

What he could do is do what Meghan did and become an actor! Surely that will pay the bills. I am not sure how sharing your baby videos with the entire world protects them from becoming targets either.

The price of fame huh. If they living in California then surely it will be easy to get work on film and tv. Otherwise what else can they do.


I think King Charles might need some help in his organic garden. Oh but its beneath the royals to do any gardening work they have servants to do that.

so what happned to Diana when she left the royal family (Dexit? ) was she didnt have a title. and it also meant no more protection from the royal protection officers (they have paid bodyguards..all royals have them)

The paps kept chasing her, they chased her to her death. At the time, she only had Dodi and HIS bodyguard to protect her. But his bodyguard failed to remind them to wear their seatbelts. And they had a drunk driver driving their car.

I dont think anyone can stop anyone doing stupid things if they are determined to do it.

what can Harry learn from this to protect his wife? Fans can be scary, and he had grown up in the fishbowl but its a bit different for a woman. Nobody really wants a photo of Harry, everyone wants to see beautiful Meghan and what she wearing or doing.

1..Have a dog. The Queen always had her corgis. They can bite any paps ankles if they get too close
2. Wear your seatbelt at all times when travelling in a vehicle. It just might save your life.
3. dont pay much attention to what others say about you...people can write whatever they like. Most of the time its nothing personal, and unfortunately, some people get jealous as if they actually wanted to marry Harry instead
4. Pray

if youve left your family and gone into exile make the most of your life of what you have already i.e children. Go live your own life and let it go. Will one day Harry will go back to his dad like the prodigal son? But see the prodigal son never married and had a wife and children.

anyway, theres lots of things Harry could do, like write a chapter book series for Tweenagers called the Adventures of the Susssexes in Africa. Also it seems the paps arent that bad in Africa and cant go chasing them around all the time as theres too many potholes and mud on the roads to get that far anyway. Oh and landmines. Dont forget the landmines.

Do something good with your lives peeps. Dont die in a car crash.

the economic future of africa, Harry could perhaps actually do something about that since the colonialists kind of ruined it for everyone living there. Maybe apologise on their behalf? Sorry our royal family made slaves of you just because we wanted sugar...and coffee...and tea.

I think anyone can say that, but they dont have to charge 20 quid for it.

The only real danger I see with the nosy press is that what they write true or not people believe what they are reading and if they think Megan is a mean witch making people quit their jobs from the palace etc. Then those folks not so stable might actually try to harm her or Harry or any of them that are being written about.

Good example of believing what people say and acting out on it was Trump getting folks hyped up enough to attach the US Capital on January 6th. He prepped them long before the election was over that it was a fraudulent election. Saying if he didn't win it was stolen from him which none of it was true but people believed it and insurrection followed... I bet the people going to jail for their part in Jan 6th wished they had stayed home now.

Torturing people and paying people money they will say whatever you want to hear....

I dont always believe everything I read (or hear) I take things with a grain of salt.
As for the press they arent reliable. They cant be all the time.

I was thinking of Selena the tejano singer and how she was shot by the president of her fan club. Who had been stealing money from her. Yolanda was going to be let go for that when Selena found out. Yes Yolanda was unstable.

unfortunately a lot of the paps are just vultures. They make a living off someone elses fame.

A lot of people are just too trusting, or trust the wrong people. They dont do the background checks? People believe what they want to believe unfortunately. And many are gullible or easily duped.

I dont believe Meghan is a witch in that she practices witchcraft, but any female in a position of power and influence can be a target by someone who is envious of their position I suspect.

But the whole thing as I see it isnt Meghan doing anything its just William and Harry both need to grow up a bit and put that whole sibling rivalry thing away. They are brothers but they arent siamese twins.

Harry seems to be more Dianas boy while William takes after his dad.
So without his mother I guess thats huge, you cant help but feel for him.

the royal family or 'the firm' is an insitution, and the thing about insitutions is they can be very heirarchical and set in their ways, stuffy etc. Its hard to go against the status quo and challenge this, the way things have always been done.

Now they have left I do hope there is some measure of peace for their family and children. They dont really have to explain why they want to be left alone. Its a huge pressure to be in the royal family.

Now william has his own family, Harry is free, but should anything happen I think he would support his brother when he eventually becomes King. But its understandable he wants his own life.

I suppose when you are King or in line to the throne you kind of expect everything to revolve around you. But you cant dictate who your brother is going to marry. He'll fall in love with whoever. I think what hurt Harry the most is William was being overprotective of him and questioned him about Meghan. I dont know if he did that with his other british girlfriends. He was probably worried that, her being american, he would follow her to the US. It wasnt so much about her character or anything. Just she was from another country.

Its not like she was Canadian though she lived there. The US famously cut ties with the UK over the royal family anyway if you know your history. That is why they have presidents and not a monarchy. Or you could see it as bringing the US closer to the UK, but the Atlantic is a wide ocean.

Maybe William needs to get over that and accept that his brothers choices and lot in life are different and need to be different. Harry cant always be in his shadow forever. If Jacob and Esau could get over their differences, surely they can. Though I wish it wasnt that way that one seems to get all the blessings and the other doesnt.