Prince Harry Slammed for Disclosing Intimate Details: 'Peak Oversharing'

Prince Harry is facing criticism for making a number of highly personal—and at times intimate—revelations in his soon-to-be-published memoir Spare, after the contents of the book were obtained by news agencies on Thursday.

In what was billed by publishers as the "raw" and "unflinching" memoir, Harry hasn't held back from revealing personal conversations and details from events concerning close family members such as Prince William, Kate Middleton, King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Though Prince William appears to be the subject of the most damning revelations, such as an account of an alleged physical attack that took place at Kensington Palace in 2019, it's the information that Harry has revealed about himself that has raised eyebrows among commentators and social media users, including that he lost his virginity aged 17 in a field, that he took drugs as a teenager and that he got frostbite on his penis in 2011 following an expedition to the North Pole.

Perhaps one of the most serious personal reflections made by the prince was of his time in the army. He admits to killing 25 Taliban fighters during his tours of Afghanistan with the armed forces.

"It's not a number that fills me with satisfaction," he wrote, "but nor does it embarrass me."

The more intimate and humorous details such as Harry's unfortunate frostbite moment at the royal wedding were quickly turned into memes and shared online.

These have, however, been criticized for being in some respects too personal, too intimate and unnecessary.

"It seems that Harry has lost whatever British reserve he once might have had during his marriage to Meghan and now talks openly about the most intimate things," Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty magazine and a biographer of Princes William and Harry, told Newsweek.

"Harry is full of contradictions and although he once said he did not want to 'dilute the magic' of the monarchy, that is exactly what he has done and continues to do."

Social media users voiced similar positions.

Commentator Michele Tafoya observed: "I thought they just wanted their privacy... all evidence to the contrary."

While royal expert Phil Dampier reflected on the prince revealing that he lost his virginity to an older woman in a field at Windsor aged 17. The royal wrote of the experience, per The Telegraph: "I suspected that he was referring to the recent loss of my virginity, a humiliating episode with an older woman who liked horses a lot and treated me like a young stallion.

"I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked me on the backside and sent me on my way. One of my many errors was to do it in a field, just behind a crowded pub."

Dampier commented: "Now #Harry is telling us how he lost his virginity. Is there nothing he won't sell for money? He has gone spare."

On the same theme, political YouTuber Mahyar Tousi tweeted: "This dude talks way too much." While broadcaster Kate Bevan condemned the frostbite story as "peak oversharing."

Spare's global release date is set for January 10 and despite reports of increased security measures around its content, copies were obtained by news outlets on Thursday, owing in part to them being put on sale early in Spain.

One of the main criticisms of Harry comes after he detailed private conversations and anecdotes pertaining to royal family members while he himself has spoken out about invasions of his own privacy in the media.

Journalist Eve Pollard told Sky News on Thursday: "He hates the invasion of his privacy and his wife's privacy—and I understand that—but he's invading everybody else's privacy, and he's invading the privacy of himself. He's telling us things about Harry that we didn't necessarily want to know about."

The prince will undertake a wide-ranging publicity blitz promoting the release over the coming days, including interviews with CBS, ABC and ITV.

So far, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have made no comment about the book or Harry's claims.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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