Prince Harry to release ‘intimate and heartfelt’ memoir next year

Prince Harry has announced he has agreed a publishing deal to write his memoirs and said he would do so “not as the prince I was born, but as the man I have become.”

The global deal for his memoir was announced by Penguin Random House, with publication expected late next year and proceeds to be donated 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

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— Random House (@randomhouse) July 19, 2021

In a statement, he said: “I’m writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become. 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.”
He has promised a “first-hand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”

The BBC reports the duke has recently spoken privately with his family about writing the book, and his spokesperson added that he would not be expected to obtain permission for the project from Buckingham Palace.

This is yet another firm step for Prince Harry as he breaks free from the control of the royal institution in which he was born and takes another firm hold of his own narrative. And of course, the move is similar to his mother, Princess Diana, who also choose to release her own memoirs (albeit in a more secretive manner).

The reaction has decidedly been in Harry’s favour on social media, save for a few who haven’t ‘forgiven’ his Oprah appearance; it’s markedly different to anything Meghan Markle decides to do publically in which the trolls come out in force.

The bigger question: will it be out in time for The Crown creators to fact-check events before the series wraps up? One can hope.