I’ve officially checked one book off my reading list for 2023. Woot!
When I first heard Prince Harry was writing a memoir, I honestly had no interest whatsoever. I am a huge fan of the royal family and admittedly I have fallen victim to being manipulated by the press. My initial thoughts were it’s a cash grab and he’s selling out his family (not so untrue lol). I also have never really been a fan of Prince Harry or Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. I found them to be disingenuous, but I realize now that’s likely due to what I’d read in the press, and didn’t necessarily have much truth to it.
So let’s get into the book itself.
In terms of writing, I’d give it a 7/10. It’s a relatively easy read once you get past the initial few chapters which I found to be a bit off putting. He’s not a great writer, but I’d say it’s not poorly written and he clearly had help.
The content for the most part was interesting and his stories compelling. He takes you through his childhood starting with his mother’s death and describes the emotional toll it took on him and how it shaped him for the rest of his life. This book is very much written by a man absolutely shattered by the loss of his mother. He also loses his good friend in a car accident, so lots of trauma and death for him to deal with.
A lot of the content in his teen years and early twenties relates to how he was inaccurately (by his account) portrayed in the press, which seemed rather unfair. However, being close in age to him and American, I have basically zero recollection of any of the stories written about him during this time. So on the one hand I can see wanting to set the record straight but on the other hand, he’s now shined a light on all of these things the press said about him. It felt like he wanted to set the record straight on a lot of things and this book was his opportunity to do so, but by doing so it also spread those stories further.
I think there’s a lot of intimate details about his family that they probably wouldn’t want shared, that’s my biggest issue with the book. Like I doubt King Charles, who has been hounded by the press and had his privacy stripped from him on the regular is pleased his son is telling everyone he’s fond of doing headstands in his underwear. There’s got to be a line and I think Harry crossed it.
He also calls his brother Willy throughout the entire book, which feels super condescending. He’s his older brother and heir to the throne, I doubt he likes being called Willy, but who knows. The family dynamic is interesting to read about, having been fascinated by the royal family for a long time.
His retelling of meeting Meghan and how their relationship started is basically a reiteration of what they both said in their Netflix docuseries. So if you’re not a fan of long-form reading, you can get the same content watching Netflix. I feel for them about how Meghan was treated in the press. I do however see where his family was coming from. Basically they told the couple to suck it up because Camilla and Kate were both out through it, which I can understand. The difference in the situations was that Meghan was being subjected to highly racist journalism, which I think was the point Harry was trying to make. Seems like his family disagreed and was basically like stay in your lane (aka be a good supporting partner to the crown).
Those things aside, I think reading his book did help me see things from his perspective more and empathize with him. It’s definitely softened my opinions of him and Meghan. While I’m still not their biggest fan, I feel like my opinion of them has changed from dislike to indifference. I would encourage anyone who similarly wasn’t a huge fan of the couple to give this a read and hear it from the source.
If you are interested in the British royal family and reading about the family dynamics of one of the most ancient bloodlines in the known history of the world, I’d give it a read.
