For all of the noise that Prince Harry has made over the past few days (weeks, months, and years) about his loathing of the British media, he knows – or has been made aware by his publishers – of the necessity of sitting down with journalists in order to promote his book. And so it is that, yielding to the entreaties of publicity, he has been interviewed by the estimable Bryony Gordon for the Telegraph. It’s an interesting feature, full of colour and anecdote, and demonstrates, as if it needed to, that the rebellious prince remains a source of endless fascination to everyone in his former home country.
Yet the piece is dominated by one news line: Harry’s revelation that he has at least another book’s worth of considerably more scandalous material, which was dropped from his memoir for fear of causing irreconcilable offence, and his implicit threat that it could yet be published. In his words, ‘There are some things that have happened, especially between me and my brother, and to some extent between me and my father, that I just don’t want the world to know. Because I don’t think they would ever forgive me.’
The Duke is clearly having his cake and eating it
The Duke is clearly having his cake and eating it here, despite his protestations of diplomacy. Anyone who has read Spare – a vast number of people, if the early sales are anything to go by – will have been told about scandalous and jaw-dropping revelations about physical fights with William, and some fairly unflattering presentations of the King as emotionally and personally detached. Yet if there are yet more details that have been censored, but are lurking in a figurative little black book, the suggestion is clear: dance to my tune, or they will emerge in a future volume. He also states that the media has ‘a shit tonne of dirt’ about his family; the implication is that he will corroborate this, if required.
This appears to be, of course, nothing less than blackmail. Given that there are still questions swirling about how accurate Spare is – never did the phrase ‘recollections may vary’ seem more appropriate – then it would be easy to describe yet more scandalous revelations emerging as an attempt on Harry’s part to continue to convey his feelings of anger at his family in as public a fashion as possible. It also seems clear that the suggestion of further damaging revelations means that he is uninterested in any kind of behind-the-scenes peace settlement. He will not meet ‘the Firm’ halfway, or agree to anything other than a formal summit and a public apology.
The risk that Harry faces is that the Royal Family will call his bluff, and then the 400 pages of deleted revelations and scandal that he alludes to are nothing more than scuttlebutt and filler. Given the ridicule that many of the more lurid stories in Spare has attracted, not least the now-viral anecdote about his applying Elizabeth Arden cream to his frostbitten ‘todger’, one would not bet against more of the same emerging, which would reduce him to a laughing stock. Yet given the apparently insatiable public appetite for gossip, however absurd, one would not bet against a follow-up volume – quite literally, sparing nobody – being just as great a sensation. Lest we forget, Harry has signed a multi-book deal. This particular saga looks as if it shows no signs of being concluded, amicably or otherwise.
Comments