Senior royals are bracing themselves for Prince Harry’ s memoir after the revelation it will be called “Spare”.
A reference to the phrase “the heir and the spare”, used by Harry while growing up in the shadow of his brother, the bombshell book will be published on January 10.
Harry will rake in more than £36million for lifting the lid on his time as a royal leading up to his acrimonious exit from “The Firm” with wife Meghan.
The 416-page memoir, ghost written by American novelist J.R. Moehringer and complete with a striking cover image of Harry, will contain “raw, unflinching honesty”, according to the publishers.
It will cost £28 for a hardback, with the audio book, voiced by Harry himself, priced at £20, but is already being offered at half the cost by Waterstones.
The book was set to come out this autumn but the date was pushed back as a mark of respect following the death of the Queen.
Sources with knowledge of the deal said both Harry, 38, and the publishers were keen to make changes to the memoir following the Queen ’s death.
One well-placed source said: “The very title demonstrates yet another confrontational attack on the family after claiming a desire for privacy.
“Palace lawyers will undoubtedly be on standby in the New Year waiting to see what is in it.
“If Harry’s previous allegations across numerous TV interviews are anything to go by, this will be nuclear.
Regardless of the content, which will no doubt be explosive, there will be little chance of this acting as a vehicle to reconciliation for Harry and Meghan.”
After the passing of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth last month, Harry said “we now honour my father in his new role as King Charles III”.
But the King, who held an audience with Lesotho’s High Commissioner Nehemia Sekhonyana Bereng yesterday, will be braced for further damaging headlines.
The memoir will be published by Penguin Random House, which said: “For Harry, this is his story at last.
“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 said yesterday that Harry had donated £1.3m of his £18.4m advance to his children’s charity Sentebale.
He also gave £300,000 to WellChild, a charity for disabled children of which he is patron.
A spokesman for the King last night declined to comment.