Spare, what the title of Prince Harry’s memoir means

Harry makes it clear right away, black on white, on the cover and just below the photo of his face. Shoot is the title of his memoir, the autobiographical collection of his life experience up to now. Childhood in the palace, the trauma of Diana’s death, the unusual adolescence and the meeting with Meghan Marklethe woman who changed her story (and also that of her family).

From the very first pages of the book, the meaning of the English word is clarified, carefully chosen by Harry as a title to explain his second condition. «Shootliterally “spare wheel”, “reserve”, recalls the English way of saying referring to the reigning dynasties, “An Heir and a Spare” (one heir and one reserve), and in this case therefore means the younger brother of the designated heir to the throne».

Just go down a little, towards page 26, to better understand what Prince Harry feels in this role of heir-non-heir: «Willy, who is two years older than me, was the Heir, I the Reserve». It wasn’t just what the press called him, it was often the definition they gave him “dad, mom and grandfather, and even grandmother”. That definition, the Heir and the Backup, wasn’t so much a judgment, as Harry claims, but it left little room for interpretation. «I was the shadow, the prop, the plan B», writes the prince in Shoot referring to his brother William.

Apparently, it was not a question of a formal replacement, someone to be entrusted with the role of deputy to the Crown, but rather a real «spare part»: «I was born in case something happened to Willy, I was summoned as reinforcement, distraction, diversion. 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.”

Shoot looks like a collection of trauma royalties that Prince Harry has accumulated over the years at the palace. Episodes, anecdotes, moments and situations in which the “second-born complex” prevented him from bonding with his family. Among these, the Duke of Sussex also reported a sentence from the then Prince Charles, to whom the anger of this title would seem to be dedicated: «I was twenty years old when I learned of the alleged sentence that dad would have said to mom on the day of my birth : “Gorgeous! Now you have given me an heir and a reserve: my work is done”. It was probably a joke. But, on the other hand, it is said that a few minutes after having performed in this comedy sketch my father met his girlfriend. Conclusion: jokes often tell the truth».

Harry’s position, in those years, does not change. He feels like a pawn in a game that he can’t control: «I 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?». be a Windsor it meant understanding what the immutable truths were: behaviors, relationships, comments. Everything had to comply with the Corona filter. And this Harry understood, at least in part. «It meant absorbing the fundamental traits of your identity, knowing instinctively who you were, which essentially boiled down to being forever the byproduct of who you weren’t» writes the duke.

«I wasn’t there Grandmother. I wasn’t dad. I was not Willy. I was third in the line of succession behind them. At least once in their life, any boy or girl imagines that they are a prince or princess. So, spare tire or not, it wasn’t all that bad. And I add: Isn’t standing steadfastly behind the people you love the definition of honor?