Prince Harry: Biggest revelations from his new book Spare
There are no shortage of revelations in Prince Harry’s memoir, which is due to be released on 10 January, but has already been seen after a bungle in Spain saw it put on bookshelves early.
The Duke of Sussex has used the 550-plus pages of Spare to detail fallouts with his family, the nicknames he and William use for each other – Willy and Harold – and what happened in the wake of Princess Diana’s death.
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Here’s a round-up of the biggest bombshells.
Duke admits to using cocaine
Prince Harry admits for the first time that he has taken cocaine, smoked weed and tried magic mushrooms.
He writes of his experiences as a teenager: “Of course I had been taking cocaine at that time. At someone’s house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line, and since then I had consumed some more.
“It wasn’t very fun, and it didn’t make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different.”
He revealed he took magic mushrooms at a party at actress Courtney Cox’s house, washing them down with tequila.
He lost his virginity to an older woman
Harry writes about how he lost his virginity to an “older lady” who “loved horses very much”.
He describes the moment as “a humiliating episode” and says it took place “in a field”.
The excerpt reads: “I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and held me back… one of my mistakes was letting it happen in a field, just behind a busy pub.
“No doubt someone had seen us.”
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He killed 25 Taliban fighters
The Duke of Sussex spent 10 years in the Army, including two frontline tours to Afghanistan – during which he killed 25 people, he writes in Spare.
He explains that thanks to record-keeping he could “always tell exactly how many enemy combatants I had killed”.
“So my number: twenty-five. It was not something that filled me with satisfaction, but I was not ashamed either.
“Naturally, I would have preferred not to have that figure on my military resume, or in my head, but I would also have preferred to live in a world without the Taliban, a world without war.”
Princes asked Charles not to marry Camilla
Harry and William asked their father not to marry Camilla following the death of their mother.
Speaking about when his father married his second wife, Prince Harry writes: “That’s why when the question came, Willy and I promised our father that we would welcome Camilla to the family.
“The only thing we asked for in return was that he didn’t marry her.
“‘You don’t need to get married again,’ we asked him.”
King Charles was married to his first wife, Princess Diana, for 15 years before the pair separated in 1992. She was killed in a car crash in August 1997. He married Camilla in April 2005.
Kate made Meghan cry
In Spare, Harry elaborates on Meghan’s revelation in their Oprah interview that Kate had made her cry in the run-up to the wedding.
Harry says he came home shortly before the wedding to find Meghan on the floor crying after an argument with her future sister-in-law.
He says they had got into a disagreement over Princess Charlotte’s flower girl dress being too big – an issue Kate wanted Meghan to sort out while she was dealing with the fallout of her father announcing he would not be at the wedding.
Harry confirms what Meghan previously told Oprah, that the following day Kate came over with flowers and an apology card.
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Harry’s memoir: What you need to know
The Nazi costume
Harry puts some of the blame on William and Kate for the Nazi costume he was pictured wearing in 2005.
He says he called the couple for advice on what to wear to a party, from a shortlist of two – and they told him to go for the Nazi outfit, complete with swastika armband.
He claims they “howled” with laughter when they saw the costume and while he flew under the radar at the party, shortly after someone sold photos to the press.
Meghan not invited to Balmoral
The Queen was staying at her Scottish estate when she died last September.
Harry claims he found out his grandmother had died during the plane journey to Balmoral – a trip Charles had warned him Meghan should not go on.
Harry said his father phoned him: “He told me I was welcome at Balmoral, but… without her. He started to explain his reasons, but they didn’t make any sense at all, and it was disrespectful as well. I did not tolerate it from him.
“Don’t even think about talking about my wife like that.
“Repentant, he said, stammering, that he simply didn’t want the place to be full of people. Nobody’s wife was going to go, not even Kate, he told me, so Meg shouldn’t either.”
Harry recreated Diana’s final journey
Prince Harry says he asked a driver to replicate his mother’s final journey in Paris – travelling through the tunnel where the fatal crash took place at 105kph (65mph).
He describes being in Paris at the age of 23 and asking a driver to take him through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel at the same speed as the car carrying his mother when it crashed in August 1997.
He writes there was “no reason anyone should ever die inside the tunnel”, adding the drive was a “terrible idea”.
“I told myself I was only doing it to close that chapter, but it was not true.”
Claims brother attacked him
Harry alleges the Prince of Wales grabbed his brother and ripped his necklace before knocking him to the floor.
He says “Willy” called his wife Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrupt”.
“Everything happened so fast. Really, really fast. He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.
“I fell on top of the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces of it cutting into me. I lay on the ground for a few seconds, dazed, then got up and told him to leave.”
The incident allegedly took place at Nottingham Cottage when Harry was living there in 2019.
Push for investigation into Diana’s death
The duke called the report into his mother’s death an “insult”, saying the conclusion that the crash was due to the driver being drunk was “simplistic and absurd”.
“Even if the man had been drinking, even if he had been drunk, he wouldn’t have had any problem driving through such a short tunnel. Unless paparazzi were following him and dazzled him,” he writes.
“Why had those paparazzi got off lightly? Why weren’t they in prison? Who had sent them? And why weren’t those people in jail either? What other reason could there be apart from corruption and cover-ups being the order of the day?”
He says he and his brother agreed on those questions and planned to issue a statement asking for the investigation to be reopened.
“Those who decided dissuaded us,” he wrote.
A British couple have been found dead in Spain after being caught in the floods last week, their daughters have said.
At least 217 people have died after heavy rain in eastern Spain caused flash floods, with thousands of cars left wrecked in the streets and an unknown number still missing.
Ruth O’Loughlin and Renee Turner told Sky News their parents Don, 78, and 74-year-old Terry Turner, from Pedralba, about 20 miles (33km) west of central Valencia, went missing during the floods – only for their bodies to be found in their car days later.
An FCDO spokesperson said it is “supporting the family” and is “in contact with the local authorities”.
It comes as a red alert warning of “extreme danger” from torrential rain has been issued for Barcelona today, with 180mm of rain set to fall in 12 hours according to the national weather agency Aemet.
Speaking to Sky News, Ms O’Loughlin said she last spoke to her mother on Monday last week, and a day later saw her messages to Mr Turner were not delivering on WhatsApp.
After seeing reports of the floods, she tried to contact her father and again received no response, before her nephew rang on Thursday to say her parents were reported as missing.
Despite social media campaigning and calls to the British Consulate, Renee Turner said it was Saturday when they found out Mr and Mrs Turner had died.
“My sister and I both got a phone call to say that they’d been found in their car, and unfortunately they had died,” she said.
Don Turner with his daughter Ruth O’Loughlin (right)
Ms O’Loughlin added: “We’d got told they’d nipped out for gas, as they do.
“Obviously, they weren’t aware of how bad the area was, and their friend said they were aware [the couple went out] as they used to talk all the time.
“And then they didn’t come home.”
The daughters said ‘everybody knew’ Terry – pictured here with her daughter Ruth (left)
Renee Turner insisted both Mr and Mrs Turner would have “without a doubt” heeded flood warnings, but told Sky News “there was no alert”.
“My parents would not have been out,” she added. “We are so angry at the slackness of the Spanish authorities in that respect.
“Not just our mum and dad [have died], there’s hundreds of people, hundreds, and they have to be held accountable for that.”
Ruth O’Loughlin (L) and Renee Turner
In their hometown of Burntwood, Staffordshire, Ms O’Loughlin said “everybody knows my mum and dad”. As kids, she recalled how people would come over when Ruth was baking.
She added that Mr Turner “was the clown – everyone loved Dad… he made our childhood absolutely wonderful,” before saying that when they moved to Spain, “everyone knew them there”.
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Terry Turner
Terry volunteered at a local dog rescue centre and adopted two kittens, Ms O’Loughlin said, which are currently being looked after by the couple’s friends in the area.
“We sort of knew [they were dead] because we knew that our mum would have done anything to get back to those pets,” Ms O’Loughlin added.
Both Renee Turner and Ms O’Loughlin had wanted to move their parents back to England, and the couple had been expected to return home permanently soon.
“We had plans,” Ms O’Loughlin said. “Mum was desperate to come back. She’s a shopper, she missed Morrisons.
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“We were looking at maybe getting a bigger house and moving mum and dad in with us. We could keep our eye on them, we could make sure they were okay.
“The thought of that: My mum said to me that ‘that’s more than I could ever wish for’.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy expressed the UK’s condolences on X, saying: “The UK government expresses its heartfelt condolences to those affected by the tragic floods across Spain – our thoughts are with those that have lost their lives, their families and all those affected. I have offered the UK’s full support to my friend @jmalbares.”
Don Turner
Meanwhile, the local government in Catalonia warned of “continuous and torrential” rain in two regions today, saying people should avoid travel and stay away from streams and ravines.
Authorities told those nearby the “extreme danger” warning issued for the Barcelona region: “Do not travel unless strictly necessary.”
Authorities have also suspended train services in northeast Catalonia on request from civil protection officials.
University tuition fees in England will increase for the first time in eight years, the education secretary has announced.
Fees have been frozen at an annual level of £9,250 since the 2017/18 academic year.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the maximum cap will now rise in line with inflation from April 2025.
That will increase the cost of tuition to £9,535 next year – a rise of £285.
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Ms Phillipson also announced a rise in maximum maintenance loans so they will now increase in line with inflation, giving an increase of £414 a year to help students with living costs.
The education secretary tried to ward off any panic from students as she said: “I want to reassure students already at university when you start repaying your loan, you will not see higher monthly repayments as a result of these changes to fee and maintenance loans.
“That’s because student loans are not like consumer loans, monthly repayments depend on earnings, not simply the amount borrowed or interest rates – and the end of any long term, any outstanding loan balance, including interest built up, will be written off.”
She said the decision had not been easy but added: “It is no use keeping tuition fees down for future students if the universities are not there for them to attend, nor if students can’t afford to support themselves while they study.”
Sir Keir Starmer had pledged to abolish tuition fees when he stood to be Labour leader in 2020.
However, the prime minister rowed back on that promise early last year, saying it was no longer affordable because of the “different financial situation” the country was in, and he was choosing to prioritise the NHS.
He said Labour would set out a “fairer solution” for students if they won the election – which they did with a landslide in July.
Bridget Phillipson announced tuition fees will rise up to £9,535 in England next year. Pic: Reuters
The change comes as universities have been dealing with a funding crisis, largely driven by a huge drop in overseas students.
Rules brought in by Rishi Sunak’s government made it harder for international students, who pay higher fees than British ones, to bring their families with them to the UK.
Universities have been pleading for more investment, but Ms Phillipson said recently institutes should seek to manage their own budgets before hoping for a bailout from the taxpayer.
When she was in opposition, she also touted the idea of reducing the monthly repayments “for every single graduate” by changing how the loan is paid back.
Writing in The Times in June 2023, she said: “Reworking the present system gives scope for a month-on-month tax cut for graduates, putting money back in people’s pockets when they most need it.”
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However, the idea did not make it into Labour’s 2024 manifesto, which only says that “the current higher education funding settlement does not work for the taxpayer, universities, staff, or students”.
It adds: “Labour will act to create a secure future for higher education and the opportunities it creates across the UK.”
Independent MP Zarah Sultana, who lost the Labour whip after rebelling over the two-child benefit cap, called the latest development “wrong”.
“It’s time to abolish tuition fees and cancel student debt because education is a public good, not a commodity,” she posted on X.
‘Maintenance loans bigger issue’
Money saving expert Martin Lewis earlier explained how higher fees will not necessarily lead to students facing higher yearly repayments, as that “solely depends on what you earn not on what you borrow”.
In a thread on X, he said a more damaging policy was the Tories’ decision last year to drop the salary threshold at which repayments must be made – from £27,000 to £25,000 – and increase the time to clear the loan before it is written off, from 30 to 40 years.
He said: “Increasing tuition fees will only see those who clear the loan in full over the 40yrs pay more. That is generally mid-high to higher earning university leavers only, so the cost of increasing them will generally be born by the more affluent.”
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University fees of £1,000 per year were first introduced by the Labour government in 1998, going up to £3,000 in 2006.
The coalition government then tripled the amount to £9,000 in 2012, sparking a huge backlash, particularly against the Lib Dems who had vowed to scrap fees in the 2010 general election campaign.
Since then, there have been further changes to student finance such as the abolition of maintenance grants and NHS bursaries, moving student support increasingly away from non-repayable grants and towards loans.
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