(Photo credits: Eva Rinaldi/Joe Catron Flickr Commons)

This month’s publication of Prince Harry’s memoirs had been long-awaited, being teased since last July as the “definitive account of the experiences, adventures, losses, and life lessons that have helped shape him” ahead of his leaving the British royal family in 2020. The tell-all autobiography relates the cycle of “pain and suffering” of growing up, his strained relations with his elder brother Prince William and father King Charles III, the trauma of his mother Princess Diana’s death, and the toxic racist response to his marriage to Meghan Markle.

The aim was to reclaim his own narrative in the face of a largely hostile press toward his wife and effectively seek exile in the US. The reaction to his book, ‘Spare’ has been at best mixed. Yet, in trying to pull no punches, the Duke of Sussex has created further controversies, including over his revelations about his military experience in Afghanistan and in particular over enumerating how many Taliban he professed to have killed as well as the way he dehumanises the collateral damage as mere ‘chess pieces’ (see p. 9).

The royal family is frequently accused of being divorced from reality due to the insular nature of its ancient institution. Without being able to express their views by convention, its members have instead relied on a constructed fiction, whatever the truth may be. By breaching protocols, the prince has made himself vulnerable, especially when writing at times in such a callous and unceremonious way.

The bombshells he has dropped about his tours of duty have been uniquely criticised by both the British military and, naturally, the Afghans. The military training, he received sounds more like reliving more than two centuries of the Christian crusades against Muslims in the Holy Lands.

Coupled with specifically saying he killed 25 Taliban, retired army officer Colonel Richard Kemp, warned on Sky News that the revelations “tarnished” his reputation and “unjustly” painted the British Army in a negative light. Former national security adviser Kim Darroch also told the network he would have advised against making such statements.

The irony is that the Duke of Sussex has been hitting back against all the blatant racism Meghan has faced. In an interview with ITV News presenter Tom Bradby, he denied he and his wife ever accused the royal family of racism, arguing that there is a “difference between racism and unconscious bias.”

It was only “once it’s been acknowledged or pointed out to you as an individual, otherwise, an institution, that you have unconscious bias, you, therefore, have an opportunity to learn and grow from that… otherwise, unconscious bias then moves into the category of racism,” he sought to explain.

Already, Harry has been confronted with his own racist views, such as when he dressed up as a Nazi for a custom party when he was 20. In 2006, he was also caught on a News of the World video calling a fellow cadet “Paki” and telling another he looked like a “raghead.”

His public outpouring in his memoirs may be to win favour about his plight of becoming an outcast of the royal family but it also has the unwitting effect of rebounding on itself. Whether the Prince is ever hauled before a war crimes court for boasting about killing more than a dozen Afghans is highly dubious, while his memoir, translated into 15 languages, is already the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever, with more than 1.4 million copies sold on its release day.

“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.” That’s what he said in an initial statement last July.