The 15 most surprising details about Kate Middleton in Prince Harry’s memoir

In his new memoir, “Spare,” which was released on Tuesday, Harry discusses when Kate and William first started dating, describing the future Princess of Wales as “carefree, sweet, kind.”

“She’d done a gap year in Florence, knew about photography, art. And clothes. She loved clothes. Her name was Kate,” he wrote.

Harry went on to say that he liked seeing Kate laugh, and “better yet, I liked making her laugh.”

“And I was quite good at it,” he continued. “My transparently silly side connected with her heavily disguised silly side. Whenever I worried that Kate was going to be the one to take Willy from me, I consoled myself with thoughts of all our future laughing fits together, and I told myself how great everything would be when I had a serious girlfriend who could laugh along with us.”

Harry discusses his 2005 Nazi uniform scandal at length in “Spare,” writing that he had worn the costume to a “fancy-dress party” for William’s friend’s birthday.

The party’s theme was “natives and colonials,” which Harry called “cringy.” Harry said he hated themed parties and didn’t want to go, but William and Kate promised to help him find something to wear — and he wanted to make Kate laugh with his costume.

On the day of the party, Harry said he went to a costume shop and narrowed his options down to a British pilot’s uniform and a Nazi uniform with a swastika armband. He said he called William and Kate and asked what they thought, and they told him to pick the Nazi uniform.

Harry wrote that no one took notice of his costume at the party, but a few days later, a photo of him in the uniform was splashed on the front page of The Sun.

“There were moments over the course of the next several weeks and months when I thought I might die of shame,” Harry wrote of the scandal. In his Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan,” released in December 2022, Harry said wearing the costume was one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

As Harry watched Kate walk down the aisle and marry his brother in April 2011, he said he recalled thinking that “she was more sister than in-law.”
“The sister I’d never had and always wanted, and I was pleased that she’d be standing by Willy’s side forever,” he continued. “She was a good match for my older brother. They made each other visibly happy, and therefore I was happy too.”

But Harry said there was another feeling he couldn’t fight that day — the feeling that he was saying goodbye to his brother.

“The brother I’d escorted into Westminster Abbey that morning was gone — forever,” Harry wrote. “He’d never again be first and foremost Willy. We’d never again ride together across the Lesotho countryside with capes blowing behind us. We’d never again share a horsey-smelling cottage while learning to fly. Who shall separate us? Life, that’s who.”

In late 2013, Harry moved into Nottingham Cottage after William and Kate moved into Kensington Palace on the same grounds following Prince George’s birth.

In “Spare,” Harry wrote that the idea of living so close to William and Kate excited him, as he hoped he would be “popping in all the time” with “a bottle of wine and an armful of kiddie presents.” But to his disappointment, the couple never invited him over, he said.

“They were half a football pitch away, just beyond a stone courtyard, so close that I could see their nanny pass by all the time with the pram, and I could hear their elaborate renovations,” he said. “I assumed they’d have me over any minute now. Any day. But day after day it didn’t happen.”
Harry went on to say he hoped he could be closer to William and Kate if he got married someday, though he wouldn’t marry Meghan Markle for another five years.

Harry wrote in his memoir that Charles and Camilla “didn’t want Willy and Kate getting loads of publicity” and didn’t like when the couple drew “attention away from them or their causes.”

“They’d openly scolded Willy about it many times,” Harry added.

Harry references one such example when Charles’ press officer “berated Willy’s team” after Kate was scheduled to visit a tennis club on the same day Charles had a royal engagement.

“Told that it was too late to cancel the visit, Pa’s press officer warned: Just make sure the Duchess doesn’t hold a tennis racquet in any of the photos,” Harry added. “Such a winning, fetching photo would undoubtedly wipe Pa and Camilla off the front pages. And that, in the end, couldn’t be tolerated.”

Harry said the British tabloids were “awash” with negative stories about William “being lazy” in 2015.

“The press had taken to calling him ‘Work-shy Wills’ which was obscene, grossly unfair, because he was busy having children and raising a family. (Kate was pregnant again.),” Harry wrote. “Also, he was still beholden to Pa, who controlled the purse strings.”

Harry added that William and Kate did as many royal engagements as Charles wanted them to do and “sometimes that wasn’t much, because Pa and Camilla didn’t want Willy and Kate getting loads of publicity.”

“Willy told me that both he and Kate felt trapped, and unfairly persecuted, by the press and by Pa and Camilla, so I felt some need to carry the banner for all three of us in 2015.” Harry wrote.

Harry said he later learned the press was “gunning” for his brother because William refused to give them “unfettered access to his family” or “trot Kate out like a prized racehorse.”
Harry recalled the first time Meghan met his father and Camilla, and said she was wearing her hair down “because I suggested she wear it that way.”

“Pa likes it when women wear their hair down. Granny too,” he continued. “She often commented on ‘Kate’s beautiful mane.'”

Harry said Meghan was also wearing little makeup that day, another one of his suggestions.
“Pa didn’t approve of women who wore a lot,” he added.

In “Spare,” Harry recounted a discussion in which he said Charles asked him if Meghan was going to continue working on “Suits.” Harry, who was about to propose, told his father that he expected she’d want to be with him “doing the job.”

Harry said Charles then told him that there wasn’t enough money to go around and that he was already paying the way for “William and Catherine.”

“I flinched. Something about his use of the name Catherine,” Harry wrote. “I remembered the time he and Camilla wanted Kate to change the spelling of her name, because there were already two royal cyphers with a C and a crown above: Charles and Camilla.”

Harry said Charles and Camilla argued it would be “too confusing to have another” and suggested that Kate change the spelling of her name to “Katherine with a K.”

She did not.