Prince Harry is writing a memoir that's 'accurate and wholly truthful'
Few if any books have ever come from someone this deep inside the royal family.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Prince Harry is writing a memoir, and you've got to think the royal family is nervous.
Prince Harry continues to shake up the British royal family by tackling things that were simply Not Done by past royals. Now he's writing an "intimate and heartfelt" memoir that's "accurate and wholly truthful," publisher Random House said Monday. The book will be published globally in late 2022, and the prince will donate proceeds to charity.
Breaking news! Random House is honored to announce a forthcoming memoir by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, to be published globally in late 2022. pic.twitter.com/NUzXwntuKq
— Random House (@randomhouse) July 19, 2021
"I'm writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become," Prince Harry said in an official statement. "I've worn many hats over the years, both literally and figuratively, and my hope is that in telling my story — the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned — I can help show that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think. I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to share what I've learned over the course of my life so far and excited for people to read a firsthand account of my life that's accurate and wholly truthful."
The Random House statement calls the prince "one of the most fascinating and influential global figures of our time," and promises he'll share details from childhood to fatherhood, including details about his service in Afghanistan while in the British military.
Royal-watchers, of course, will be especially attuned to details about what it was like growing up with glamorous Princess Diana as a mother, and Harry's front-row seat to his father's affair with his now-wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles. And Diana's tragic death in a Paris car accident in 1997, when Harry was just 12, will surely be discussed.
While many books have been written about life in the royal family, they've almost all come from journalists, retired staff members or distant friends. It seems fair to say that no one this close to Queen Elizabeth II has ever written a memoir in which she will surely play a large role.
Prince Harry was born third in line to the British throne, behind his father, Prince Charles, and older brother, Prince William. He's now sixth, since William's three children all come ahead of him in the line of succession. Harry now lives in California with his American-born wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children, including new baby Lilibet Diana.
The royal family might prefer Prince Harry to keep his experiences to himself, but now that he's in America, thousands of miles away from palace courtiers, they can't really tell him what to do. In March, Harry and Meghan, aka the duke and duchess of Sussex, spoke to Oprah Winfrey for an explosive TV special, and later, the duke appeared on Dax Shepard and Monica Padman's Armchair Expert podcast. He also worked with Winfrey on a mental-health series, The Me You Can't See, which is available on Apple TV Plus.