Prince Harry says he left out details from 'Spare' about dad, brother

Three days have passed since Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir “Spare” hit shelves, bringing with it headline-making revelations ranging from how his father broke the news of his mother's death to tense text exchanges about bridesmaids' dresses.

Still, Harry says we still will likely never know the half of it.

In a recent sit-down interview with The Telegraph, the Duke of Sussex said that his initial manuscript for the book, which debuted on Jan. 10, was double the size of the published version.

“The first draft was different,” he explained. “It was 800 pages, and now it’s down to 400 pages. It could have been two books, put it that way. And the hard bit was taking things out.”

Harry said the book was the end result of 50 Zoom calls between him and his ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer, who previously worked with Andre Agassi on his acclaimed memoir "Open."

Throughout the process, Harry said he struggled with what details were appropriate to keep in which were better left out, given the fact that within his family, writing a book was “an absolute no” to begin with. (His mother, Diana, contributed to her own bombshell biography by sneaking tapes out of Kensington Palace).

Harry said most of the particulars kept off the final pages of “Spare” were those involving interactions with his brother Prince William and his father, King Charles III.

“There are some things that have happened, especially between me and my brother, and to some extent between me and my father, that I just don’t want the world to know,” he added. “Because I don’t think they would ever forgive me.”

Harry’s highly anticipated memoir is 416 pages long and details the moments of the royal family that had long been safeguarded by protocol and tradition.

The memoir sets forth the prince’s early years and the devastating impact of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales’s death. It also tackles the fragmented relationships between him and his brother, father, and their respective spouses.

Despite the book's approach of airing out family laundry, Harry says his memoir is part of a “long-term, strategic thinking” attempt to put back the pieces of what is now a broken family unit.

“This is not about trying to collapse the monarchy — this is about trying to save them from themselves,” he said. “I know that I will get crucified by numerous people saying that.”

"Spare" sold 1.43 million copies in the U.S., Canada and Britain on its day of publication, per its publisher Penguin Random House, becoming the fastest selling nonfiction book in history.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com