Prince Harry’s feelings about his treatment as the second-born son have always been clear – and they became even more so after he chose to name his bombshell memoir Spare.
The spare to the heir is a well-known royal phrase. It means that any child born after their sibling, the heir, is a second to them if something should happen. While there have been many famous spares throughout history, including the late Queen’s father, King George VI, the word is now largely tied to Harry’s controversial memoir.
The nickname appears to have always been a sticking point for the Duke, so much so that he used his tell-all book to reveal which member of his family first called him it.
He disclosed that it was actually his father, King Charles, who used the nickname, in response to Diana, Princess of Wales, giving birth to a second son. Harry claimed that his father’s reaction was: “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare – my work is done.”
Writing further about his feelings of being the ‘spare’, Harry explained: “They would say it without a spirit of judgement, but straight out. I was the shadow, the supporting actor, the plan B. I was brought into this world in case something happened to Willy.”
Elsewhere in his explosive book, Prince Harry recalled other memories of his life growing up in the Royal Family, including one Christmas when he received a “cold-blooded” gift from Princess Margaret.
Harry wrote about being given a pen with a small rubber fish wrapped around it and described the gesture as “cold-blooded”. Writing about his grandmother’s beloved sister, Harry said he felt: “nothing for her, except a bit of pity and a lot of jumpiness.”
His family Christmas celebrations featured again in his 2023 memoir as he revealed that he and Meghan “FaceTimed with several friends, including a few in Britain. We watched Archie running around the tree. And we opened presents. Keeping to the Windsor family tradition.”
He went on: “The whole family gathered to open gifts on Christmas Eve, as always, a German tradition that survived the anglicising of the family surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.”
