Tina Brown reviews Spare
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“As we all know, Harry’s gravamen, the nub of his incandescent fury, is how he and Meghan were sold out by the institution. But one senses that his rage has another source: deep marital embarrassment. Harry’s most profound act of magical thinking was the promise of what he could deliver his bride. In the ecstasies of infatuation – and of relief that he’d finally found someone “perfect, perfect perfect” – he boosted his beloved’s fantasy of their life together as world-dominating humanitarian superstars powered by her Hollywood glamour and his royal stature. Sitting on the Ikea sofa of Nott Cott, how could he tell her that, in the grand scheme of the monarchy, he was a penny-ante prince? His great big dreams revealed how small he was: one can’t help but feel that it’s this that he really wants an apology for”
"Deep marital embarrassment" on another level made me think that perhaps he is actually deeply embarrassed of Meghan and her cheap, moneygrubbing antics. We all saw his face during her curtsy - he looked at her with such obvious contempt and disdain.
However, he doesn't have the balls to tell her what he really thinks. Perhaps that is why he has placed so much focus on his penis. She has castrated him, figuratively speaking.
Like in the Cold War, they have a balance of terror. The delusion of this crusade against his family, the world etc keeps them going forward. Should they stop even for a moment, her vapid gold digging and non existent stardom will become apparent, as will his utter uselessness to provide for his family like a man in any way whatsoever. Like the bus on Speed, they need to keep moving or face the truth. And people like them never chose the truth…
Now that I see them for the delusional people that they are, I do think they will stay married for awhile and that this goes deeper than we thought. Previously I made the mistake of thinking that they were normal people who would bail when they saw that they were on a rapidly sinking ship. They seem to think that they can persevere with anything.
They will absolutely stay together, their need to have each other confirm their respective self image/self delusion is too great. It’s a foundation for their characters.
Can you imagine peeking over the edge into that dark chasm of your own making?
My father had a friend, a teacher in one of our Greek schools in (then) West Germany. Said friend was a staunch communist, his father had been before him. In fact his father had done years in political exile for his beliefs. When the wall fell, said friend went to the East German side and cried like a baby when his belief system collapsed, his world shattered. It wasn’t heaven on earth, like the Party instructors had evangelised. It takes great courage to face your errors, to stare into the abyss. I don’t think either of them, H or M are capable of looking into the abyss, they are afraid of the chasm looking back at them, inside them.
In the book, there are two different times that I feel as though Meghan uses righteous indignation to side step a real issue that someone is trying to communicate with her: "You won't talk to me like that again" to Harry and then telling William to get his finger out of her face. I rolled my eyes both times because it came across more that she wanted to derail a true conversation and show boat, than stand up for herself.
There is also the shame and humiliation of her family's antics - they are pretty trashy in their behaviour and surely, one cannot separate MM from that imbroglio. No amount of celebrity brown-nosing can make up for one's background in a milieu where lineage counts for so much.
H and TW have been much more embarrassing themselves than her family has ever been. And her family ended up being correct about most of the things they have said. If her family had been handled properly from the off, they wouldn’t be any more embarrassing than Catherine’s silly uncle. They are still loved family and you deal with it. When you make them feel like garbage and dump them after they raised you because they no longer fit your aesthetic, that’s where the trouble begins.
Agree, he was raised in such different circles, he can't not be embarrassed by her crass behaviour.
Wow, that’s an astute observation by Tina.
I was also very struck by Brown's point, but I think it goes the other way too: Meghan oversold herself to Harry (and the world). "I gave up my career for this family" said Meghan to Oprah--as if Meghan's career was on a level with Grace Kelly's. And Harry seems to think Suits was a big show.
A difference, though, is what Brown calls 'marital embarrassment'----Harry might be subconsciously embarrassed at his failure to deliver for Meghan, but Meghan is impervious to embarrassment.
When the divorce happens, Meghan will definitely accuse Harry of overselling, telling her they could exit the UK and take the money and the 24/7 security with them.
So true, implying her career is on a level to Grace Kelly’s. The way she phrased that statement about what she gave up to Oprah was so infuriating: no one forced her to do so and she knew the deal from the get go. Why even say that? And yes to Harry thinking Suits was a big show. They both are insufferable.
She probably will accuse H of overseling. But who will take her seriously?
RF has given her so much ( living in the castles, millions for clothes, millions for wedding, international FAME!!!, meeting the most interesting people in the world...).
She should just say "Thank you.". Thank you very much .
Harry may have oversold what he, and his title, could bring to the marital table, but I’m willing to bet everybody else in Harry’s sphere would have been warning her it wasn’t going to be all beer and skittles. This royal gig is going to be hard, and it’s going to be a lot if hard work: being in the spotlight, the lack of privacy, the constant scrutiny, promoting charities, genuine charity work, travel, tight working timeframes etc. … etc. … etc. …
Megsie would have been like “Oh yup, sure Haz, I can sooo totally work hard, and I’m used to the spotlight and scrutiny ‘coz I worked on a prominent tele show called ‘Suits’. You may have heard of it”.
History tells us Megsie wasn’t prepared for the RF gig - whether no-one told her (scoff) or the rose-coloured glasses slipped from her nose before the ink was dry on the marriage certificate.
They oversold to each other but lets not forget what this sub has known for a very long time: they were planning to leave from the begining. This was proven by the NF series with those photos. Perhaps they realised they had oversold but wove it into their Megxit revenge story.
Meghan has said that people tried to warn her when she wanted pity play. What she never says is her reaction. A bit like her never getting help...because she rebuffed it all.
Totally agree. The line one senses that his rage has another source: deep marital embarrassment is incredible. All this bullshit happened because Harry was embarrassed in front of a girl he is trying to impress.
Not just a girl that Harold was trying to impress....a crazy girl. A loon. An unstable, aging girl watching her fading career dissipate and who is desperate to score some relevancy, and wealth.
They are a perfect match.
I was thinking around these lines last week. But more that he's angry because what he thought was the perfect wife, and the perfect escape has turned into a shitshow with an angry self obsessed wife. He's stupid, but he must.be aware that he's become a performing monkey for the media to earn money. The very people that he hated, he's beholden to to get by. He's trapped with a awful wife too. Thats where I think all the rage is coming from
She's usually such a Sussex suck up, but this was good, I agree
Yaaaass. This is what he wants them to apologize for, he won’t be happy until he makes Megan happy and he knows if she were Queen he could say he made her happy. So he wants to be King. Desperately
I don’t think he wants to be king but he wanted to wow his new bride and humility and a life of service was not enough. She needed glitz and glamour and riches
I think it’s the other way around. It was Meghan who overpromised and underdelivered.
Edit: It’s all her cheesy take-the-world-by-storm ideas with brand Sussex mugs and Archewell crap and her “I’ll only work with A-list directors” fantasies. She wanted to triumphantly return to the Hollywood that rejected her and be everything all at once— humanitarian/charity circuit type, Duchess, uber-celebrity, Michelle Obama-type influencer, A-list actress, inspirational speaker, etc. She pried Harry away to achieve all of this. I’ll bet Harry wanted to stay and be the popular Royals, with travel to H’wood parties of course, but all of this sh*tshow has been her delusional aspirations and the life she promised him.
Edit #2: I’m disappointed that Tina has bought into the exact narrative that Meghan wants us to believe, as her hand guided every word in this book. M wants us now to believe that she was the catch, that Harry desperately wanted to impress her, that she was the trophy wife to show off to William. And she was just this glamorous movie star, unaware of the RF or who Harry was. This is all M’s response to everyone who knows she was an absolute Nobody who desperately stalked him, meticulously studied him, and cornered (blackmailed?) him into proposing.
Agree. Harry is too lazy to have wanted to be a “world dominating humanitarian superstar”. For Meghan, life was always one big hustle, and she just couldn’t stop doing that and switch off that part of her personality after marrying Harry. She is ambitious but doesn’t have the self-awareness to understand that she doesn’t have the ability to be the kind of superstar she wants to be.
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No, she would play the whole "Now I'm a target and I'll never be safe until we get married".
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I TOTALLY AGREE with you! Good job and thanks
H sold m on being royalty and m sold h on being a Hollywood star 😂😂 both are delusions! 😂
They both sold each other lies about what they were bringing to the table, Harry about Royal Life and his place in it, Meghan about what a star she was, these lies now trap them in this course of action and they can’t speak the truth because the lies are foundational to their self delusions and their marriage!
So much for “love”, eh?!
Who reckons Meghan wrote the “perfect, perfect, perfect” that Tina quotes?
🙋🏻♀️
She has referred to herself as “perfect” in many instances.
Everybody lol
I thought she made a great point here.
WOW. What an intricate thought
I imagine both of them rubbing their hands together scheming in the cottage. Congratulating and complementing each other on how they are both geniuses. I think they truly thought they were gonna create and compete their own monarchy or something delusional. Reminds me of when my mates would all smoke bongs in a friend's shed and scheme on how to become rich
Lol im dying here
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Matthew 5:48:
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
It's moreso a language issue, though. God describes Himself, and is described, as perfect and perfection Himself. However, this is no vanity, and it's in more awe-inspiring language and symbolism than "perfect, perfect, perfect". Take the different repetition in Isaiah 6:3:
And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Or Revelations 4:8:
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
Please, even as 5th in line to the throne, his public profile was far higher than MM's. MM sells a good game but who was she really before she married Harold? Can one even compare her to Clooney's unknown lawyer wife (solidly upper middle class professional class)? The profile these two grifters were aiming for was that of the Clooney power couple.
"The fridge at his modest “Nott Cott” bachelor digs within the hardly shabby environs of Kensington Palace is, he tells us, often “stuffed with vacuum packed meals sent by Pa’s chef”."
This excerpt just made me cry. Not because I feel for Harry, but because my father, who passed four years ago, would always stock my freezer. I can cook, but my Father wanted to make sure I was taken care of even if I was too busy to cook for myself. He wanted me to be out in the world, living my life without worries holding me back.
Your Father loves you, Harry and you're a stupid bitch.
Your Father loves you, Harry and you're a stupid bitch.
100%. This is such an excellent summation of Harry.
What the hell is his Love Language anyway! He doesn't recognize Charles giving him money, vacuum-packed meals, or handwritten notes telling him how proud he is and how much he loves him. Let alone verbal apologies or expressions of love. What does he want.
I’m guessing he wants a Time Machine and a better childhood where mom & dad love eachother and mummy doesn’t pass away tragically. He also wants to be born first . Honestly, he’s not an onion that needs to be peeled. He’s way less complex . He’s like a blooming onion at this point just wide open , dipped in batter and ready for the deep fryer
His love language is Mummy and Megalomania.
He doesn’t recognize handwritten letters from someone who loves to get letters either. Git.
As someone who has lost both parents within the past 5-6yrs, (within 2yrs of each), this breaks my heart. What kind of monster does one have to be to trash either parent or their one and only sibling to the entire world IN EXCHANGE FOR MONEY?! I happen to listen to a few podcasts about toxic relationships, whether it’s with family or otherwise, and the victims are not paid for telling their stories. They do it simply to raise awareness as to any red flags one should be aware of in order for others to not end up in the same situation, and they are in a FAR less privileged position than these idiots! No family is perfect, but this smacks of narcissistic personality disorder, extreme entitlement and privilege due to their perceived positions of importance, and any one of the other toxic personality disorders to me.
Honestly, they need to STFU with their whining and over-sharing of their pathetic lies. I’m not a hard core royalist despite living in a commonwealth country, but they need to realize that they are actually digging their own grave due to their simple stupidity.🙄
Who is the target audience for these two? The dumb sugars? Or the oligarchs who are more than willing to finance them for their own ends? I suspect it’s a mix of both.
I may be middle aged, but neither myself or my husband are white. We grew up in immigrant families where we saw how hard our parents worked in order to provide us with the education we needed to succeed ourselves. We appreciate what they did for us. Too bad this duo has zero appreciation for what their family circumstances gave them.
I love his description that Charles always calls him "darling boy" - that is clearly Charles's love language and it blew right over Harry's head. Sad really.
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Sorry for going off topic but I am reminded of a poem and thought you would might like it:
Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was more than bread;...
Your hands once touched this table and this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.
These things do not remember you,
And yet your touch upon them will not pass.
For it was in my heart that you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember always,-They knew you once,
O beautiful and wise.
-Conrad Aiken
Beautiful
Thank you for this
Thank you so much for sharing this 🧡🧡🧡
😥❤️😥❤️😥❤️😥
Oh my heart
Awe, yup. Some people just set up camp in your heart and they never leave. 😥
It shows a couple of things to me-
How kind his dad was to see to it that he had lots of prepared dinners.
Also- just how privileged this whiny spare is: he got prepared meals from his dad’s chef. That’s pretty nice.
Daddy didn't give me A5 grade wagyu, the abuser!!😤😤😤
Similarly, when my dad got older I did his shopping for him. He just wanted mundane things - TV dinners, bread, lunchmeat, American cheese, a bit of ice cream… - but he’s not here anymore and I miss going shopping for him. I kept his last shopping list.
Fuck you, Harry.
You are way richer than haz or meg's. You loved your father
I did and do, very much. Mom too.
As much as I miss being taken care of by my parents, I miss taking care of them, too.
I don't think Harry will ever have the privilege or honour of taking care of someone who raised him.
And with only one parent alive you would think he would relish every moment with him.
I wish I had a stocked frig full of prepared food from a royal chef! I hate cooking!
I thought the same thing.
Independent Leg and Grizzly, your stories touched me. What a sweet expression of love by your fathers (Harry's too). ❤
I'd give anything in the world for 5 more minutes with my father. #2 is an ignorant selfish cunt wart.
He complains about things, but doesn't seem to realise how totally privileged he is when he slips in things like meals cooked by personal chef. Makes him a complete ass.
You're so precious to say that. I'm so glad you see how much your Dad loved you. 😘
I object to calling it a “literary success,” though. It’s a commercial success, sure. But literary? Come on, Guardian.
Yeah. I RME on that one. It sold well, which was no surprise.
“Harry’s jihad against the press often ignores how much he gave them to work with. Charles’s gentle forbearance over the incident is a credit to paternal generosity and tolerance. William, who urges Harry to get help, is depicted by turns as a lugubrious stiff or a petty hysteric who thinks the Africa conservation portfolio Harry wants should be entirely his. His younger brother, one realises, as he obsessively doomscrolls through the sewers of social media and broods on slights real or imagined from his sibling, is addicted to the adrenaline of umbrage. William’s crime seems to be mostly that he grew up and Harry did not. “
Wow. Wonderfully said.
William’s crime seems to be mostly that he grew up and Harry did not.
Holy crap, this cuts to the bone.
Yep, I also love "addicted to the adrenaline of umbrage".
Also... I can't believe she used the word "lugubrious" in a meaningful sentence!
That’s pretty deep yes and does indeed cut to the bone of some dysfunctional sibling relationships. Is Harry a 40 year old embittered Peter Pan??
This reminds me of another Peter Pan manchild drama that played around millennium.
There are quite a few odd similarities.
Great article. They both oversold themselves. He convinced her that he was a superstar in the RF. She convinced him she was a superstar in the acting world. They thought they would become as Tina Brown put it Humanitarian Superstars. Very rich superstars. That’s why they wanted out. To be able to keep all the millions they were going to generate for themselves. Sadly the only people they fooled were each other.
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No doubt Harold has probably concocted and spoke about crazy media conspiracies over the years to his family and how much he hates the media, then accusing William of taking their side could of easily made him snap and attack him, essentially accusing him of siding with the people he hates the most
Thanks for bringing this to our attention OP, it's a good read. A review from Tina Brown, who had a history with Diana, brings some new perspective.
Meghan absolutely knew where Harry was in the pecking order. She just thought her mere presence would make them more important.
Wow - this makes so much make sense to me!! I mean in a twisted way of course.
”William’s crime seems to be mostly that he grew up and Harry did not. The heir has schooled himself to accept the daunting mantle of a royal destiny, one he no more chose than Harry chose his. The latter had the army as a 10-year refuge, but does not even begin to conceive that William, equally scarred by tragedy, had no refuge at all.”
This is truly all the review needed to say. Succinct.
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I assumed she used gripping to describe his relationship to his peen
And objectively less safe, with dingbat giving everyone the layout of the palaces
You make an important point that this book demystifies the RF. Demystifying will bring a faster end to the monarchy.
For me it showed just how strong the institution is and was. It's nice to think that everyone just is genuinely happy and gets along like that. But seeing the behind the scenes and how there is a lot of "grace under pressure" going on shows that the working royals aren't just a group of pretty flowers. They have nerves of steel.
“I’ve been told that, er, that I have to ask your permission to propose [to Meghan],” Harry mumbles. “Well then,” replies her majesty, “I suppose I have to say yes.” It’s one of the joys of this memoir that Harry is still puzzling over her answer. “Was she being sarcastic? Ironic? Was she indulging in a bit of wordplay?” One imagines that gingery face screwed up in a knot of incomprehension that no sentient reader shares about what the queen actually meant."
I thoroughly enjoyed this review. Needless to say.
I think this is a great piece.
Agree. I like this passage because it shows Harry's completely juvenile personality:
"Harry’s unreconstructed laddishness eventually starts to get as tiresome for the reader as it did for his family. What grown man of any public profile plays strip billiards with a bunch of random phone-wielding party girls picked up at a Vegas casino?"
Like a malevolent 40 year old Peter Pan, he imagined great potential which absolutely would not happen and now he blames the world. And what is more tiresome than a 40 year old father of two who is entirely stuck at boyhood??
I'm pretty sure that was William and Catherine's idea. He probably called them, asked them if he should do it, and they laughed.
He probably said "I don't know if we should play strip poker or strip billiards" and they said "Billiards!". So that was what Harry did.
I heard the choice was Cirque du Soleil show or strip billiards, and Kate said, "Strip billiards, of course, you loser!" Then she and William howled with laughter.
Totally!
Of course, LOL!
Very insightful, but I would expect no less from the amazing Tina Brown
I love Tina brown. Some of the more dogmatic in the sub say she’s a sugar, but I don’t think so at all. She considers all sides.
It doesn’t really matter what Harry told Meggy. She won’t be told anything. She saw the brass ring and went for it. She had fantastical delusions from the jump.
Already a problem w/ the review. JR Moehringer is not a novelist. He’s a journalist, memoirist & a ghost—but he doesn’t write fiction (except maybe in service of Harry’s memoir.)
"Fuelled by the adrenaline of umbrage": nice.
The best review i have read and very accurate i also believed that he promised much more to Megan than he could deliver in his effort to keep her and that is the place from where his rage emulates,. I imagine he was rude to staff to display his importance and all the things he did out of character to defend her were merely to try to impress her. I would say the good sales of the book and the income from it will seal the deal for her and she will scarper,. I would ! A strong woman like her needs a real man you can depend on not a child in 38 year old man pants !
"William’s crime seems to be mostly that he grew up and Harry did not. The heir has schooled himself to accept the daunting mantle of a royal destiny, one he no more chose than Harry chose his. The latter had the army as a 10-year refuge, but does not even begin to conceive that William, equally scarred by tragedy, had no refuge at all."
Harold the whiner with his resentments against an older brother with a much greater burden than he'll ever have.
Archive please?
Beautifully written!
She’s so good!
They added that to try muscle in get their paid security, and that IP status to retrieve government information anywhere in the world. And plus with all their crimes they want to get away with everything they've done ✅
She’s such an amazing writer.
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