Copies of Prince Harry’s memoir smeared with Afghan blood to go on sale
Copies of Prince Harry’s memoir smeared with the blood of Afghan people are set to go on sale – with a five-figure price tag.
Artist Andrei Molodkin says he has covered 25 copies of Spare with human blood, which he will put on display at a shop in Windsor today.
It comes after the Russian anti-war artist projected a sculpture filled with blood on to St Paul’s Cathedral in London last week, in a protest over the Duke of Sussex’s remarks about his number of kills in Afghanistan.
One of the blood-soaked copies of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare
Molodkin said some of the blood donated for the artwork has now been used to create his “alternative Spare” books, which will be available to buy from 2 May – four days before the King’s coronation – for $10,000 (£8,000) each.
The artist says any money raised from the sale will be donated to Afghan charities.
In a statement about his latest stunt – called “Blood Money” – Molodkin said: “Prince Harry boasts of killing Taliban like they’re baddies in a video game, ‘otherising’ human life then cashing in on the sorry tale to sell books about his drug binging, sexual exploits and killing conquests.”
After going on display in Windsor on Saturday, a spokesman for Molodkin said the blood-covered books will be available to buy at a/political, the art and activist body, in Kennington, London, on 2 May.
Harry faced criticism for revealing in his memoir that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving with the British army in Afghanistan. He wrote that it “wasn’t a number that gave me any satisfaction… but neither was it a number that made me feel ashamed”.
Prince Harry pictured serving in Afghanistan in 2008
The prince also admitted that he did not think of those he killed as “people”, but instead as “chess pieces” that had been taken off the board.
He wrote: “While in the heat and fog of combat, I didn’t think of those 25 as people. You can’t kill people if you think of them as people. You can’t really harm people if you think of them as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods.”
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Molodkin told Sky News last month that Harry’s remarks had made him “very, very angry” and he wanted “to drench St Paul’s Cathedral in the blood of Afghani people” by projecting his sculpture on to the landmark.
He said: “They read they are just ‘chess figures’… for some prince hunting by helicopter.
“It looked like a safari situation. How he told it, for him it’s like a computer game.”
Molodkin’s Royal Blood sculpture contained blood donated by Afghans
Molodkin projected his sculpture filled with human blood on to St Paul’s Cathedral
Molodkin said about 1,250ml of blood was used in his sculpture – called Royal Blood – after being taken by a registered nurse, kept in a fridge and then “pumped” into the artwork.
The artist, who used to serve in the Soviet Army, said the blood was donated by Afghans in France and the UK and he explained to all the donors how it would be used.
He previously hit the headlines after producing a sculpture featuring an image of Vladimir Putin that was filled with blood donated by Ukrainian fighters.
Now living in the south of France, Molodkin said he “can’t go back to Russia” as he believes he would be jailed.
Andrei Molodkin uses human blood in his sculptures
Following the release of his memoir, Harry said it was a “dangerous lie” to say he had “somehow boasted” about the number of people he killed in Afghanistan.
The royal carried out two tours in Afghanistan during his time in the military, including one tour between 2012 and 2013 when he served as an Apache attack helicopter co-pilot gunner.
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Among the revelations in his book, Harry admitted he had taken cocaine, smoked weed and tried magic mushrooms, and revealed he had lost his virginity to an older woman in a field.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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