Sparing the truth?
Prince Harry is under fire — yet again — over his new memoir, “Spare,” as critics continue to find multiple factual errors in the book.
The Duke of Sussex wrote that King Henry VI, who founded the prestigious boarding school Eton — which he attended, was his “great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.”
However, readers took to social media to point out why that was an impossibility because Henry VI had only one son, Edward of Westminster, who died in battle at age 17, before he could have any children of his own.
“Henry VI’s only son, Edward of Westminster, was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, aged 17,” one person tweeted.
“Henry VI had no other children so how could he be a ‘direct’ ancestor? Prince Harry appears to have been very loosely educated. Maybe Eton owes HM the King a refund on their fees.”
Another wrote, “Prince Harry cannot even fact-check his own family tree given that he remains under the impression he is descendent from King Henry VI, whose son died childless at 17. But sure, let’s all believe Harry fact checks The Crown. That’s believable. 🤣👏”
A second error that has been fact-checked since “Spare” was released on Tuesday was Harry’s claim that he offered to buy his wife Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas Markle, a first class ticket from Mexico to the UK on Air New Zealand.
“We told him, leave Mexico right now: A whole new level of harassment is about to rain down on you, so come to Britain. Now,” the duke, 38, wrote.
“Air New Zealand, first class, booked and paid for by Meg.”
However, a spokesperson for Air New Zealand told the New Zealand Herald on Wednesday that the airline has “never operated flights” between Mexico and Great Britain and that they only offer Business Premier fares, not first class.
One of the first errors to catch readers’ eyes was Harry’s claim that he was in school at Eton when he found out his great-grandmother, the Queen Mother, died in March 2002.
Photos from the days leading up to Queen Elizabeth’s death and the day afterward showed that the prince was actually on a ski trip in Switzerland at the time.
The glaring mistake led people to dig for more errors, which is how they found out that Harry had apparently also lied about receiving an Xbox as a gift in 1997.
The author wrote that Princess Diana had bought him the gaming console for his 13th birthday and it was given to him by his late mother’s sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, after the princess tragically died.
However, Xboxes did not exist until 2001 and they were not sold in England until a year later.
There are people, though, that continue to come to Harry’s defense and claim that the mixups are just an oversight in the writing process.
“I think Harry meant PlayStation which was released in 1995, or the console before Xbox,” one person tweeted. “It’s easy to confuse the names and he was 13yo at the time, that was 20+ year so ago after a huge traumatic loss. His mother gave him a gaming console. Y’all nitpick every single detail.”
Another pointed out how Harry’s ghostwriter, JR Moehringer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, may end up getting the blame.
“I give it about a month before Harry and his owner Meghan try to toss @JRMoehringer under the bus & claim that the utter destruction of Harry’s reputation due to #Spare is the ghostwriter’s fault. Hope he had a really strong non-disparagement clause,” a Twitter user wrote.
Reps for Harry and Penguin Random House, the publishing company behind the book, did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment on the inconsistencies.
However, the Duke of Sussex has appeared on several TV interviews in which he’s alleged that his book contains the truth about his life.
On Tuesday evening, Harry appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and joked about fact-checking Netflix’s “The Crown,” and said while pointing to his memoir, “Which, by the way, is another reason why it’s so important that history has it right.”
