Prince Harry has shared his concerns for the other “spares” in the royal family, including the Prince of Wales’ three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
In an interview with The Telegraph published on 13 January, the Duke of Sussex spoke to journalist Bryony Gordon about his newly-released memoir, titled Spare. The book, which hit shelves on 10 January, reveals many shocking details about the British royal family, such as an alleged fight between Prince Harry and Prince William that resulted in Harry being grabbed by the collar and knocked to the ground.
In Spare, Harry reveals that the rift between himself and his brother runs deeper and predates his wife Meghan Markle’s entrance to the royal family. Despite the brothers’ sordid relationship, Prince Harry told The Telegraph that he worries about the “other spares” in his family.
“As I know full well, within my family, if it’s not us,” he said, as he pointed to his chest, “it’s going to be someone else.”
“And though William and I have talked about it once or twice, and he has made it very clear to me that his kids are not my responsibility, I still feel a responsibility knowing that out of those three children, at least one will end up like me, the spare. And that hurts, that worries me.”
Prince William and Princess Kate are parents to nine-year-old Prince George, seven-year-old Princess Charlotte, and four-year-old Prince Louis.
While not much is known about Prince Harry’s current standing with his niece and two nephews, the duke has previously shared touching moments with the royal children in years past. After the birth of Prince George in July 2013, Prince Harry admitted that his role in the upbringing of his nephew was to “make sure he has a good upbringing, and keep him out of harm’s way and to make sure he has fun.”
“The rest I’ll leave to the parents,” he said, before joking: “I only hope my brother knows how expensive my babysitting charges are.”
Last September, Prince Harry and Princess Charlotte also shared a short but sweet moment during Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral service at St George’s Chapel. During the service, the duke sat in between his wife and the Prince and Princess of Wales’ seven-year-old daughter, who was also sitting next to her mother.
In a video of the service, Charlotte adjusted her brimmed hat while her uncle was glancing over at her. When the two made eye contact, Harry gave her a subtle but kind smile, prompting Charlotte to smile back at him.
After their brief exchange, they both faced forward to direct their attention towards the service.
In Spare, Prince Harry revealed how the infamous bridesmaid dress debacle between Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton actually went down, after Princess Charlotte’s dress for Sussexes’ 2018 wedding allegedly didn’t fit her.
Harry recalled how Meghan received a text from Kate about Charlotte’s dress for the wedding needing to be altered. He claimed that when Meghan responded, she told Kate that their tailor, Ajay, would be making his way to Kensington Palace. However, he said that this response “wasn’t sufficient,” and shared the alleged text conversation between the two women.
“Charlotte’s dress is too big, too long, too baggy,” Kate’s text said, according to Harry. “She cried when she tried it on at home.”
Harry then claimed that Meghan responded with: “Right, and I told you the tailor has been standing by since eight a.m. Here. At KP. Can you take Charlotte to have it altered, as the other moms are doing?”
In her reply, Kate allegedly said that “all of the dresses need to be remade”. Harry also claimed that Kate’s wedding dress designer had agreed with her.
He went on to say that Kate texted about other wedding issues, including “the page boys,” and that the two women “went back and forth” about the topic.
The conversation allegedly ended when Meghan texted: “I’m not sure what else to say. If the dress doesn’t fit then please take Charlotte to see Ajay. He’s been waiting all day,” to which Kate responded: “Fine.”
The duke wrote that shortly after the women’s conversation, he came home to see Meghan “on the floor” and “sobbing”.
“Emotions were running right, of course, after the stress of the last week, the last month, the last day,” he wrote. “It was intolerable—but temporary. Kate hadn’t meant any harm, I told her.”
He claimed that the next day, Kate came to his house “with flowers and a card that said she was sorry”.
