Harry as a child, who shared a bedroom with William at Balmoral (but his half was “smaller and more miserable”)

The title of the book-bomb already says it all: Shootliterally “spare wheel”, “reserve”. Allusion to a well-known saying about the royal family, according to which a monarchy must have «an heir and a spare», an heir and a spare part. But the prince Harry at court (and not only) he has always felt literally treated as the “spare part” of William, the older brother who grew up with a crown in his pocket. The Duke of Sussex’s memorial is full of anecdotes and reflections that tell the story of the “second-born complex” he has experienced since childhood. Also to Balmoralone of the places where, as a boy, he was “happiest”: «Balmoral, to me, has always represented heaven, the cross between Disney World and a grove sacred to druids». In that paradise, the second son of Charles and Diana was always busy “with fishing, hunting, running up and down the hill”. Then in the evening, before going to sleep, he and William would remain “perched on the top step of a service staircase to eavesdrop on adultshoping to hear a dirty word or a story that is not told in front of kids». Or “we ran back and forth along the corridors under the watchful eye of a dozen stuffed deer heads.”

Carefree moments that come back to Harry’s mind along with the knowledge that even then he was treated as William’s ‘spare wheel’. At Balmoral, says the Duke of Sussex, there are “fifty bedrooms”. They shared one for him and William: ‘The adults called it the nursery. Willy had the larger half, with a double bed, sinka wardrobe with mirrored doors and a splendid window that overlooked the courtyard where there is a fountain with a bronze statue of a roe deer. My half was much smaller and less luxurious. I never asked why, I didn’t care. After all, there was no need: Willy, who is two years older than me, was the Heir, I the Reserve».

It wasn’t simply a question of how the press referred to them: “Often dad, mom and grandfather, and even grandmother, called us that. The Heir and the Reserve: that definition was not a judgment, but it was also unambiguous. I was the shadow, the prop, the plan B. I was born in case something happened to Willy, I had been summoned as a backup, distraction, diversion and, if necessary, spare part. Maybe a kidney, a blood transfusion, or a piece of spinal cord. All of this had been made clear to me since I can remember, and reiterated regularly ever since.”

Harry says that he didn’t feel “offended”: «I felt absolutely nothing. The line of succession is like the weather, the position of the planets, or the changing of the seasons. And who had the time to worry about things that couldn’t be changed anyway?», she writes. But in another passage of the book he adds: «My family had declared me a nonentity. The Reserve. I wasn’t complaining about it, but I didn’t want to dwell on it either. In my head it was better not to think about certain facts, such as the fundamental rule for real travel: Dad and William couldn’t take the same flight, to prevent the first and second in line from dying together. But no one cared who I traveled with: the spare wheel could always be done without».

But now the “spare part” prince has decided to spill the beans. And in the pages of Shoot the allusion to the trauma that has been carried since birthin the shadow that has accompanied him throughout his life: being destined for a second-row role, always behind William, the future king.

-Prince Harry, who after Shoot «will not be welcome at the coronation of father Charles III»

–Shootthe silence of the Crown “irritates Prince Harry”

-Harry and the drama of being “a spare part” for his brother (one Shoot)