Everything we know about Prince Harry’s upcoming red hot memoir “Spare” (so far!)

Amid preparations for King Charles III’s coronation and ongoing political turmoil in the U.K., the release of Prince Harry’s highly anticipated memoir still looms.

Penguin Random House just announced this week that the book, titled “Spare”, is officially slated to be published in January.

The memoir was first announced last summer, promising a late 2022 release, and ever since the world of publishing and royal watchers have been buzzing about what is likely to be a very revealing look into the life of the renegade prince.

Here’s what we know so far about the bombshell memoir that could rock the British royal family…

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It was officially due out in November, but…

The publisher just announced it won’t be out until January. In August, a source told Page Six that while there has been talk of a November release, concerns over certain “truth bombs” in the book may delay publication.

“I have heard that Harry has some truth bombs in his book that he is debating on whether to include or not,” the unnamed publishing source said. “So this [push back is] no surprise if he needs more time to work on the book.”

Of course, this was well-before the Queen Elizabeth’s death on September 8…

Harry is reportedly adding a last minute chapter.

According to The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden (via Cosmopolitan), Harry is crashing in a last minute chapter about his experience at the Queen’s funeral.

“It will give him a chance to address those stories about him being offended by not being able to wear his uniform and then not having the ER letters on his epaulettes,” Eden reports.

He also speculates that Harry is likely taking the opportunity to revise the book to reflect the seismic shift in the royal family following the Queen’s death and the accession of his father, King Charles.

“It would suggest that the book is being delayed so it may come out next spring rather than next month as we’ve been led to believe.”

It’s going to be “an intimate and heartfelt memoir”

Neither Harry nor his publishers have said much about the book beyond the title and the initial press release, which called it “an intimate and heartfelt memoir” which will cover the prince’s “lifetime in the public eye from childhood to the present day, including his dedication to service, the military duty that twice took him to the front line of Afghanistan, and the joy he has found in being a husband and father.”

Here’s what Harry himself had to say about it:

I’m writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become. I’ve worn many hats over the years, both literally and figuratively, and my hope is that in telling my story—the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned—I can help show that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to share what I’ve learned over the course of my life so far and excited for people to read a firsthand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.

It has a Pulitzer prize-winning ghostwriter

The Prince and his publishers have tapped J.R. Moehringer to ghostwrite “Spare.”

The Tender Bar author and Pulitzer-winning journalist previously collaborated with Andre Agassi on the tennis star’s 2009 memoir Open.

Historian and royal biographer Robert Lacey describes Moehringer as “a powerful and psychologically exploratory writer, so we can expect a powerful and psychologically exploratory book.”

As Lacey tells The Guardian, he expects Moehringer to exhume plenty of skeletons via his in-depth interviews with Harry, which reportedly took place prior to Sussexes’ public reconciliation with the royal family at the queen’s Platinum Jubilee earlier this year.

Harry has been researching his mother’s death

It seems inevitable that Harry’s memoir will deal in part with the effect Princess Diana’s tragic death in 1997 had on her son. According to “official judicial sources in Paris,” researchers for the book have been seeking info about the car crash that killed Diana.

As one source told The Sun: “There have been approaches which suggest Prince Harry is intensely focused on getting more information about his mother’s death. There are plenty of people in France who recall the night of the accident. It’s only normal that Diana’s son should want to learn more about it for his book.”

The royal family is totally freaked

This should come as no surprise, but the senior royals have been dreading the release of this book, to say the least.

Though as The Telegraph reports, the royal family has been pretty much kept in the dark about what’s in the book and when to expect it, that hasn’t stopped them from fretting about what Harry could potentially reveal.

Prior to her death, most reports indicated that the Duke of Sussex was unlikely to go after his grandmother, Elizabeth II. And with the monarch’s death in September, it’s even less likely that she’ll come in for much criticism. But that didn’t stopped the Queen from reportedly “lawyering up” in the months leading up to her death. A source told UK tabloid The Sun that the late queen had consulted libel experts in preparation for the book’s release.

Charles, meanwhile, has reportedly urged Prince William to stick up for him and his wife, Camilla, the Queen Consort. But, a source told The Sun, William is “unlikely to want to get involved. In all likelihood, he will try and stay neutral.”

Perhaps most fearful is Camilla. “The rehabilitation of Camilla’s image has been utterly successful, but she lives in dread of Harry’s book,” The Palace Papers author Tina Brown tells The Daily Beast.

Brown thinks the Queen Consort is worried that Harry’s memoir will reopen old wounds regarding her affair with Charles during his marriage to the late Princess of Wales. “In some ways, Diana’s ghost still rattles at the gate.”

Harry may not get an invite to Charles’s coronation.

The New Royals author Katie Nicholl told The Daily Beast recently that although Charles unquestionably wants Harry and Meghan at his coronation on May 6, that may depend on how Camilla is treated in the Prince’s book.

“To be fair to Charles, he has been magnanimous in terms of extending, very publicly, olive branches to the Sussexes, not only in his televised accession address but also putting them front and center at the funeral events,” Nicholl says.

But the King, she adds, “does expect respect in return, and a problem is going to arise if, between now and then, Harry repays him by attacking him, Camilla or the institution. He is not going to put up with inaccurate and unfair attacks.”

A friend of the Queen Consort says there’s no chance Charles will invite Harry if he slags off Camilla in the book.

The question of whether the Sussexes’ children will receive the titles of prince and princess is apparently at play as well.

“My understanding is that Charles is not averse to granting them titles, but he expects to see respect from the Sussexes in return,” Nicholl says. “The ball is in the Sussexes’ court.” Whether any of this impacts what’s in Harry’s memoir or when it is released remains to be seen.

The book doesn’t line up with the Sussexes’ Netflix doc

In addition to Harry’s memoir, the Sussexes also reportedly have a docuseries slated to premiere on Netflix in December. Following the Queen’s death, Harry and Meghan have been trying to get the streamer to delay the series, produced by their Archwell Productions.

Deadline reports that Netflix has buckled, not under pressure from Harry and Meghan, but due to controversy around the upcoming fifth season of The Crown. Netflix has apparently refused to even confirm that the doc exists.

Meanwhile, a source at Netflix tells Page Six that the docuseries contradicts what’s in Harry’s memoir. “A lot in the show contradicted what Harry has written, so that was an issue,” the source said.

What else to expect?

A source tells Page Six that the book will include “new stories” that Harry hasn’t spoken about before, “about his childhood… there is some content in there that should make his family nervous.”

Royal expert and author Andrew Morton thinks Harry may take particular aim at his father: “I think we’re going to see Charles once more in the firing line.”

Harry and Meghan’s former palace staff are also worried about the treatment they might get in the book’s pages, as are Harry’s friends.

“There is a fear that he’s going to reveal details of his hedonistic youth, which some worry will play havoc with their careers and personal lives,” a friend of the Prince told the Daily Mail. Perhaps a detailed explanation of those nude photos taken in Las Vegas? Or of that time he dressed up as a Nazi for a costume party?

On the less scandalous side, it would be lovely to hear Harry’s account of defending out soldier James Wharton from homophobic bullying while they served together in 2008.

And given the Sussex’s blockbuster Oprah interview, it’s a safe bet that Harry will have a lot to say about the circumstances leading up to “Megxit”—the UK tabloid term for Harry and Meghan’s 2020 decision to “step back” from their roles as senior members of the royal family.

Having leveled allegations of racism at the royal family—including “concerns and conversations” about their son Archie’s skin color—it would be even more stunning if Harry’s book didn’t go into all the sordid details.

“Spare” hits bookstore shelves on January 10, 2023.