Prince Harry has no regrets over royal memoir Spare

Prince Harry insists he has a "clear conscience" over his memoir Spare. Photo / Oli Scarff, AFP

Prince Harry has defended his tell-all autobiography Spare, insisting he had no regrets after its publication more than two years ago sowed discord within the British royal family.

“I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public,” King Charles III’s younger son told the Guardian newspaper in an interview released on Sunday.

“It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear,” he insisted.

With its unstinting depiction of the royals and at times uncomfortably detailed account of his life as a prince, Spare flew off the shelves after its release in January 2023.

But his frank criticisms of other family members, including his brother’s wife Catherine and his stepmother Camilla, irritated Buckingham Palace.

After the book’s publication, the already strained ties between Harry and the rest of the royal family frayed further.

Harry quit royal duties in 2020 and moved to California with his wife Meghan, nee Markle.

Before paying a surprise visit to Charles on Wednesday, he had not seen his father for 19 months.

Their previous meeting was in February 2024, when Harry rushed to the UK after Charles announced he had been diagnosed with cancer, for which he is still receiving treatment.

Harry, who despite having stepped back from royal affairs still holds the title of Duke of Sussex, insisted Spare was “not about revenge”.

“It is about accountability,” he told the Guardian in Kyiv, which he visited on Friday for charitable reasons.

“I know that [speaking out] annoys some people and it goes against the narrative,” Harry told the paper.

“The book? It was a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected.”

He had previously voiced hopes for “reconciliation” with the King, as he did “not know how much longer my father has”.

- Agence France-Presse