It will come as a surprise to no one that Prince Harry’s new memoir, Spare, dishes its fair share of royal family drama throughout its 416 pages. One tidbit in particular plainly illustrates the royal’s somewhat tumultuous relationship with his stepmother. According to Page Six, the soon-t-be-released book alleges that Camilla, who became the Queen Consort when Charles took the crown this year, turned Harry’s bedroom at Clarence House into her personal dressing room when he moved out. “I tried not to care. But especially the first time I saw it, I cared,” Harry wrote of the incident.
Clarence House, which was built in the mid-1820s and still serves as King Charles and Camilla’s London residence, was also Harry’s official home from 2002 to 2012, when he moved into Kensington Palace and was deployed to Afghanistan shortly thereafter. Camilla allegedly converted the space immediately following his departure, according to the autobiography.
The highly anticipated memoir also details that Harry and William pleaded with their father not to marry Camilla. Harry wrote that he recalls speculating “if she would be cruel to me; if she would be like all the evil stepmothers in the stories.”
The much-buzzed-about volume drops a few other bombshells, including Harry’s claim that William physically attacked him during a conflict between the brothers regarding his marriage to Meghan Markle. Much of the book apparently grapples with Harry’s resentments and struggles within his famous family–the title itself is a reference to his position in the shadow of Prince William. Early on in the book, Harry writes about the story of his birth, when King Charles allegedly told Princess Diana, “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare – my work is done,” according to The Guardian, which obtained an early copy of the memoir.
Spare will be released on Tuesday, January 10.
