Prince Harry, the Britney Spears of the royal family, has reportedly postponed the publication of his memoir until next year, according to a Sussex source quoted in The Telegraph. In light of Queen Elizabeth II's death, the Duke of Sussex perhaps decided it would be unseemly to release a book full of family secrets at this exact moment. Not that anyone knows exactly what the memoir contains. It could be just a collection of Harry's happiest princely memories.
Still, that seems unlikely. And the unpublished memoir is already said to be a source of great harrumphing in Buckingham Palace, per The Daily Beast. King Charles III, Harry's father, reportedly worries that the book will further damage his reputation right after he's taken the throne. The memoir is also, allegedly, driving an even bigger wedge in the rift between Harry and his brother Prince William.
The truth is that Charles and William likely have good reason to be worried about the reputational hit they could take (at least in the United States) upon the eventual release of Harry's book. The duke has described not only his family's (alleged) racism and coldness toward his wife but also his own upbringing in terms that don't not sound like long-term emotional abuse.
“I was trapped, but I had no idea I was trapped,” Harry told Oprah Winfrey in their 2021 interview. “My father and my brother are trapped. They don’t get to leave. And I have compassion for that.”
King Charles and Prince William have of course denied that they are in any way “trapped,” but we'll just have to see how everybody feels after Prince Harry's memoir is eventually published next year.
