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In his highly anticipated autobiography, Spare, Prince Harry recounts what he says was ‘cruel, torturous treatment’ from his brother, William, now Prince of Wales, during endless Halo sessions at one of the Royal Family’s 356 holiday estates.
Describing one particular confrontation at the ‘preferred Summer house’, Harry says William would never allow him to use the more player-friendly Xbox controllers.
The confrontation escalated, Harry writes, until William “grabbed me by the collar, and said ‘NO. I get to use the good one. Because I’m older”
“I get to use the chicer and smaller Controller S design… And you get to use the SPARE”.
The extraordinary scene, which Harry says resulted in lifelong fractures between the pair, is one of many in Spare, which will be published worldwide next week and is likely to spark a serious furore for the British royal family.
Amid stringent pre-launch security around the book, The Betoota Advocate has manged obtained a copy.
The book’s title comes from Harry’s resentment of the term “spare” – which is the unifying theme of this book that details the harsh upbringing of two of the richest young men in the world.
The term ‘spare’ refers to the early 2001 prototype design for the Original Xbox controller, known colloquially as ‘The Duke’.
After the ‘Duke’ had received much criticism for it’s chunkiness, and initial sales of the Xbox were well bellow what was estimated, the lighter and smaller “Controller S” was later released in in 2002 – eventually replacing the first-generation controller in the US Xbox’s retail package.
The original Duke remained discarded as the back-up controller in households around the world, for users to draw straws over not having to use.
Spare is a remarkable volume, in which this ‘Xbox altercation’ between the two princes forms a startling passage – even more shocking when it is revealed that both men were in their twenties when this incident took place.
Harry says he didn’t tell his wife about the incident for years – but did tell his therapist.
When Meghan later found out, Harry says she “wasn’t that surprised, and wasn’t all that angry.”
“She was terribly sad.” he said.
