After making headlines with several leaks from the book, many Royal fans are asking: how much does Prince Harry make with Spare?
Prince Harry’s book named Spare launched on January 10, 2023, but many details of its contents were leaked a week prior. The book is described by its publisher, Penguin Random House, as a “landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.” The book will be the first insight into Prince Harry’s life since he and his wife Meghan Markle stepped down from their royal duties and since the bombshell Oprah interview in 2021. The book was obtained in advance by outlets including The Guardian and Page Six, which revealed bombshell details about the Duke of Sussex’s life including his ongoing feud with his brother.
So how much does Prince Harry make with Spare? Read below to find out.
How much does Prince Harry make with Spare?
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How much does Prince Harry make with Spare? According to Entertainment Tonight, Prince Harry has a four-book deal with Penguin Random House worth $35 to $40 million. The Archewell Foundation founder first announced the publishing contract in July 2021. After his memoir, his other books will cover other facets of Prince Harry’s life in public service. ET reported that one of those books will touch on the Invictus Games, which Harry launched in 2014.
As well as the book deal, Harry and Meghan also signed a record-breaking deal with Netflix. Sources said the couple was offered a hefty sum in the ballpark of $100 million. In September 2020, the New York Times reported the couple, who founded their production company Archewell Productions, had signed a multiyear deal with Netflix, which will pay them to make documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming. “Our lives, both independent of each other, and as a couple have allowed us to understand the power of the human spirit: of courage, resilience and the need for connection,” the duke and duchess said in a statement at the time. “Through our work with diverse communities and their environments, to shining a light on people and causes around the world, our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope.” The couple debuted their first Netflix documentary in December 2022 with Harry & Meghan which details the troubles the couple had when they faced the press.
“Harry and Meghan did leave as working members of the family with everyone’s best wishes and it is sincerely hoped they find the happiness that appeared to be lacking in their lives,” a source told The Mirror. “However, it goes without saying any deals they are making will be scrutinized by the royal household.”
Since the book leaked, many revelations came out with Harry’s relationship with the Royal family. The book is named after the name he received after he was born. After his birth, King Charles allegedly exclaimed to Princess Diana, “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare – my work is done.”
The name “Spare” is a unifying theme in the book. According to the Guardian, the metaphor follows him “through chapters on his childhood, his schooling, his career as a royal and in the British army, his relationship with his parents and brother and his life with Meghan through courtship, wedding and marriage to their own experience of parenthood.”
In one chapter, William confronted Harry in his home of Frogmore Cottage and called his wife Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive.” Harry then accused his brother of “parroting the press narrative” about his wife, to which William claimed that he was just helping his brother. “Are you serious? Help me? Sorry – is that what you call this? Helping me?” Harry responded.
He then revealed that William attacked him after Harry offered him a glass of water. “He set down the water, called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast,” he wrote. “So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”
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William left, Harry wrote, then returned “looking regretful, and apologized”. When William left again, his brother writes, he “turned and called back: ‘You don’t need to tell Meg about this.’ Harry replied, “‘You mean that you attacked me?’” “‘I didn’t attack you, Harold.’” William responded (it’s mentioned throughout the book that “Harold” is William’s brotherly nickname for his brother, while Harry calls William “Willy”). After the altercation, Harry called up his therapist. “‘We’d had a million physical fights in our lives,’ I told [my therapist]. As boys, we’d done nothing but fight. But this felt different.”
According to Royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti to Us Weekly, the Royal family might not respond immediately with their thoughts about Harry’s book. “I think that they have two different agendas, and that’s why sometimes the royal family probably is willing to ride out a storm if it’s not too irrevocably damaging or permanently damaging because they know that in the longer war, even if they lost the odd battle, they’re going to come out on top,” Sacerdoti said. “And I suspect that will be their guiding principle when they’re deciding how to react. But of course, they will have to react here and there, even if not directly to some of the things that are being said.”
In an ITV interview premiering on January 8, 2023, Harry revealed what he really wants from the coronation. “If you are invited to the Coronation, will you come?” ITV News anchor Tom Bradby asked Harry, who responded, “There’s a lot that can happen between now and then. But, the door is always open. The ball is in their court. There’s a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they’re willing to sit down and talk about it.”
For more about Prince Harry, read his upcoming memoir, Spare. Told for the first time in his own words, the book takes readers through the Duke of Sussex’s life with the British royal family, from the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 to how the moment led to his decision decades later to move to America with his wife, Meghan Markle, and leave Buckingham Palace for good in 2020. “With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief,” the publisher’s description reads.
