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The Duke of Sussex could air more grievances in his upcoming memoir, a royal commentator has suggested. The fact alone that Prince Harry was born into the Royal Family and was a part of it for more than three decades gives the book, titled Spare, the potential to have far more material and draw more interest in people than the Harry & Meghan documentary released by Netflix earlier this month, according to broadcaster and royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti.
Mr Sacerdoti told Express.co.uk: “Prince Harry at least in his memoir has a lot more to draw, he is somebody who has grown up in the Royal Family and had all this scrutiny, he may not have wanted that at all.
“Meghan on the other hand married into it quite deliberately. And I think she can only have been aware this is the sort of thing that would go on despite her claim to the contrary, everybody know how closely scrutinised the Royal Family are.”
Meghan has said multiple times she had very little knowledge of the Royal Family and even of Prince Harry before meeting him in the summer of 2016.
In the first episode of the docu-series the Sussexes released for Netflix, Meghan said she did not “Google” the royal but, rather, she looked at his private Instagram account.
Prince Harry’s memoir will be released on January 10 (Image: GETTY)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary debuted on December 8 (Image: NETFLIX)
She said: “When people say, ‘Did you Google him?’ ‘No’. But I… that’s your homework. You’re like, ‘Hmm, let me see what they’re about in their feed not what someone else says about them but what they are putting out about themselves’. That to me was the best barometre.”
Mr Sacerdoti went on to explain why he thinks Harry’s life history has a far more attractive power than his more recent past with the Duchess.
He said: “Harry’s book has the potential to have far more in it, far more interest because he was in the Royal Family for far longer, and he will always be Prince Harry.
“Whereas Meghan Markle is still known as Meghan Markle by most people around the world because that’s what she has been for most of her life and the brief period in which she became something else is the one where she is talking about a lot now, but I think interest will wane.”
READ MORE: Moment visibly upset Harry receives text from William after Oprah chat
Prince Harry spoke about the state of his relationship with Prince William in the docu-series (Image: NETFLIX)
Prince Harry announced in the summer of 2021 he was working on a memoir in which he would share “the definitive account of the experiences, adventures, losses, and life lessons that have helped shape him”.
The book, set to cover his whole life in the public eye, from childhood to fatherhood, will surely include the Duke’s grief following the devastating death of Princess Diana in 1997.
Harry’s publisher Penguin Random House provided more information about the memoir in October, when it promised Spare will feature “raw, unflinching honesty” and Harry’s life discussed in Harry’s words.
The publisher also said: “It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror.
Prince Harry is the second son of Princess Diana and King Charles (Image: GETTY)
“As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last.”
While the size of this book deal hasn’t been revealed, Harry announced he would donate to charity his proceeds from the book.
He has already donated $1.5million to Sentebale, the charity he co-founded with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in support of Lesotho and Botswana’s children whose lives have been affected by Aids/HIV, and has pledged to give £300,000 more to WellChild, one of his patronages, which is focused on supporting at home children and young people with life-limiting illnesses.
The book will be released just a few weeks after Netflix’s release of Harry & Meghan, the docu-series featuring the Sussexes’ first account on their romance, struggles with media attention and relationship with the Palace and royal relatives.
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