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Prince Harry has shared more details about his childhood and relationship with the Prince of Wales in his explosive memoir.
Writing in Spare, the Duke of Sussex, 38, said he grew up knowing that he was there to give his older brother, Prince William, 40, an organ donation if he needed it.
“I was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy,” he said, claiming that his parents and grandparents even referred to him and his brother as the heir and the spare as a form of “shorthand”.
He described his life as a “mission to offer a source of distraction, entertainment and, in case of need, a spare part”, such as a kidney, blood transfusion or bone marrow.
Harry, who is two years younger than Prince William, explained how this idea of “heir” and “spare” had been reinforced throughout his entire life.
He said that this idea of only being in the world in case something happened to William was made “abundantly clear” to him from an early age and was “regularly reinforced” throughout his life.
The father-of-two then told an anecdote from when he was 20-years-old and he heard a story about his father’s “supposed words” to his mother, Princess Diana, on the day he was born.
King Charles III is alleged to have said to his wife, “Wonderful! You have already given me an heir and a spare; I have done my job.”
Elsewhere in the sensational book, Prince Harry broke royal protocol and discussed his father’s neck and back pain.
Detailing King Charles’s health woes, the Duke of Sussex wrote about how his father battled “constant neck and back pain” for which he partly credited to his father’s old polo injuries.
Harry also detailed several bombshell revelations about his brother William, including how he “recoiled” from Meghan’s hug during their awkward first meeting.
The Duke of Sussex described the moment he introduced his brother to his girlfriend as a “classic collision of cultures”.
The meeting took place in late 2016 at the Prince and Princess of Wales’s Kensington Palace apartment, shortly before Prince Harry and Prince William went on a shooting trip.
Describing the short walk from Harry and Meghan’s home Nottingham Cottage to Apartment 1A, the duke admitted that he was more nervous for his girlfriend to meet William than anyone else.
When his brother answered the door, Harry says William was a “bit dressed up” in smart trousers and a shirt.
He wrote, “I introduced Meg, who leaned in and gave him a hug, which completely freaked him out. He recoiled.”
Giving some context to the awkward encounter, Prince Harry said his brother wouldn’t usually hug someone he didn’t know.
In contrast, Harry explained how this was just Meghan’s way of greeting strangers.
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