person of the week
Five Reasons for Prince Harry’s Sweepstakes
By Wolfram Weimer
01/10/2023 10:34 am
With his book “Spare” and in a series of interviews, Prince Harry repeatedly attacks his father, his brother and the entire royal family with new allegations. The process is as spectacular as it is tragic – for five hidden reasons.
A book of anger, hate and embarrassing revelations about first sex, teenage coke, brother beatings, a heartless father, a nasty stepmother, a Nazi costume and alleged racism at Buckingham Palace. It will be the cornucopia book of the year for the tabloids. For the British royal family, it is a stink bomb of historical dimensions. For Prince Harry, the book means a tragic self-destruction to the point of a cynical confession that he killed 25 Taliban fighters whom he did not see as human beings but as “chess pieces who were taken off the field”. Harry ruins his closest family ties and at the same time his own image in the world public arena. Why is he doing this? There are five hidden motives:
Money: The ducal couple live a super-rich lifestyle in the Californian billionaire enclave of Montecito, but are no longer financed by the royal family. So Harry and Meghan need money. Lot of money. Her property alone with 16 bathrooms, rose garden, pool, tea house and tennis court is said to have cost $14.65 million. That’s why Harry and Meghan have signed million-dollar contracts for documentaries with the streaming service Netflix, in which they present themselves as permanent victims of the monarchy in the public consciousness. The publisher Penguin Random House is said to have paid Harry an advance of 20 million dollars for the tell-all book “Spare” (in Germany it is called “Reserve”). That’s how the BBC reports. US and Canadian media even report that Prince Harry’s contract includes several book publications with a total fee of 35 to 40 million dollars. The publisher has not confirmed this, but has not denied it either. In any case, it is probably one of the highest book fees ever paid. In return, Harry has to wash as much media marketable dirty family laundry as possible and sell his soul a little. Harry and Meghan’s deals with Spotify, Netflix and book publishers are said to have netted the couple more than $100 million. The Californian glamor lifestyle is at least secured.
fraternal envy: A major motive in the Harry spectacle is the rivalry with his brother. William is the designated heir to the throne in the limelight, Harry is only a perceived replacement in the shadows, a “spare”, as he demonstratively titles his book. The sting of not playing an important role seems to be deep-seated and triggers an elemental hatred of brothers. The Bible knows the fratricide of Cain and Abel, the mythology tells the same of Romulus and Remus, the motif of the brother tragedy is engraved in Harry’s life. His book and his interviews seem like verbal fratricide. In the favor of his compatriots, Harry’s reputation slipped to a record low. 64 percent of those surveyed now have a negative opinion of the prince, as the opinion research institute Yougov announced on Monday. In Germany, Prince Harry’s behavior is strongly reminiscent of Thomas Mann’s literary story about the stray Christian Buddenbrook, who spent his life working on his sensible brother Thomas and ruining himself.
father complex: In the book, Harry tells of his mental stress due to the early death of his mother and the troubled relationship with his emotionally cold father. He missed his father’s hugs, suffered from his jokes that he might not even be his father and, out of sheer pain of loss, tried to contact his dead mother through a medium. There are sad passages in the book where you would like to hug and comfort the distraught Harry afterwards. But then you realize that Harry is engaged in a therapeutic communication of love-hate relationship with his father, whom he sharply accuses and at the same time begs to “take back”. A distraught, self-harming Narcissus with a massive father complex emerges.
Prince Harry even accuses his father of being jealous of the public attention Meghan got. Charles feared the actress could steal the spotlight from him like Harry’s mother Diana once did. His father had “experienced this before and had no interest in it happening to him again,” Harry writes, referring to his late mother Diana. He indirectly blames his father for his mother’s death.
So it’s no coincidence that he hired the super journalistic expert on this topic. Pulitzer Prize-winning ghostwriter JR Moehringer wrote the book. Moehringer is a star when it comes to father complexes. He has already written the biography of tennis star Andre Agassi and his father problems. Moehringer’s own autobiography “The Tender Bar” is to be realized by George Clooney as director and producer in the coming year. The story, to be adapted into a film with Ben Affleck, revolves around the author as a young boy looking for a surrogate for his father, who disappeared before his son could speak his first word. Clooney reportedly introduced Moehringer and Prince Harry to each other. A collective father complex processing has been set in motion.
Revenge: Harry’s book is also a conscious outcry against the constraints and rituals of an age-old institution. The royal house itself is pilloried, Harry imagines himself as a kind of revolutionary. When he laments latent racism or just describes how evil stepmother Camilla sicced the press on him – his criticism has a political dimension. The court is scheming, ruthless, superficial and mendacious. Harry’s allegations are brutal – but they should contain a grain of truth. The courtly world of constraints, rituals and calculated media work would have to be reformed in Harry’s view of things, otherwise there would be other victims after his mother Diana. According to commentators, the book could indeed plunge the monarchy into a crisis. Because Harry’s attacks come right after the death of Queen Elizabeth and before the accession of Charles. The timing is politically very delicate. The London Times already describes the memoirs as “devastating”.
Megan: Many observers in Great Britain believe Duchess Meghan to be the actual main cause of the conflict. Harry himself accuses his family that the royals are “complicit” in the “pain and suffering” that Meghan was inflicted on and even compares his family to “abusers”. Have against Meghan there were “a lot of stereotypes”. The reasons for this were that the Duchess was an “American actress, divorced, multiracial”. Meghan and the royals “didn’t get along almost from the start.” Over time, the palace made her a scapegoat and set the press on her. Conversely, many Britons believe that Meghan herself triggered the conflict of vanity and craving for recognition. Her popularity has plummeted to miserably negative levels in polls, and the British press paints a picture of a calculating actress who has found the role of her life and cast her husband Harry as an extra in his own tragedy.
In fact, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan recently announced a “significant deal” with Netflix, under which they will produce a variety of original content including documentaries, films, series and children’s programs. The deal was made in collaboration with her company Archewell Productions. Meghan wants to turn Archewell into a larger media company that markets moving image content, audio and live formats.
With Archewell Productions, she officially wants to “create content that informs, but also gives hope”. In an official statement, Harry and Meghan share: “As new parents, it’s also important to us to do inspiring family programs.” They add that Netflix’s “unprecedented reach” will help them “share impactful content that inspires action.” In this respect, the media spectacle is also the beginning of a new career.