NYT: Prince Harry’s memoir will be released on January 10, 2023

The leak about Prince Harry’s memoir came in the summer of 2021. I always believed that Harry and Penguin Random House didn’t intend for the news to come out at that moment, but they hastily arranged a confirmation, with Harry issuing a statement about his intent for writing the memoir. In the roughly fifteen months that followed the leak and confirmation, the British media has been beside themselves, hand-wringing and whining, threatening and lying. Personally, I had my fingers crossed for a November release just to be able to move on from this neverending “what’s in the book?!” melodrama at long last. It looks like Harry’s memoir has been pushed back about a month though – the NY Times reports that it will come out on January 10, 2023.

It seemed like a sure thing, or as close to a sure thing as is possible in book publishing: Prince Harry, who was living in self-imposed exile after his stormy exit from the British royal family, was writing a tell-all. After months of frenzied speculation, the book has a publication date: Jan. 10, 2023, according to industry executives.

The memoir, the first in a competitive multi-book deal with Penguin Random House, was initially scheduled for late 2022 and expected to be a blockbuster. It was part of a broader push by Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to build their brands as media moguls: Beyond the book contract, with a rumored price tag of at least $20 million, the couple signed lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth II last month, any attacks the memoir might make on members of the royal family, or the monarchy, could strike many readers as unseemly. Prince Harry has gotten cold feet about the memoir’s contents at various points, book industry executives with knowledge of the process told The Times, and the project has been shrouded in rumors, delays and secrecy.

The memoir will be published at a delicate moment for the British monarchy and public, which is still adjusting to King Charles III and reeling from economic and political instability. Its release also thrusts Prince Harry into an impossible situation. Damaging revelations could hurt the monarchy and his relationship with his family. But holding back could dampen sales, making it more difficult for his publisher to recoup its considerable costs — and could erode Harry’s self-made image as the rebellious, truth-telling prince.

“Is his goal to enhance his celebrity with a certain sector of the public, or is it to repair the rift with his family?” said the literary agent Matt Latimer, co-founder of the Javelin agency, which represents politicians and public figures like James Comey, the former director of the F.B.I., and John Bolton, the former national security adviser. “Those are competing goals to some extent, and it’s hard to do both.”

Penguin Random House declined to comment. A representative for Harry and Meghan also declined to comment.

“Don’t forget, the British royal family is there by consent, they need to earn and keep the respect of the British public,” said Valentine Low, a journalist and the author of “Courtiers: Intrigue, Ambition and the Power Players Behind the House of Windsor.” “If that is ever damaged in a fundamental and permanent way, that could be very serious.”

[From The NY Times]

What is the NY Times doing here? “Any attacks the memoir might make on members of the royal family, or the monarchy, could strike many readers as unseemly”…? Unseemly like the new Princess of Wales looting the dead queen’s jewelry before the body was even cold? Unseemly like Queen Elizabeth’s son selling off her prized racehorses? Unseemly like Charles, Camilla, William and Kate yukking it up and prancing around, taking Drab Four portraits the night before the Queen’s funeral? That kind of unseemly?

“Is his goal to enhance his celebrity with a certain sector of the public, or is it to repair the rift with his family?” I didn’t know literary agents needed grown men to supplicate themselves before their dysfunctional and racist families? What business is it of Rando Literary Agent if Harry repairs the rift with his family?

Anyway, since it’s the New York Times, I suspect that the release date is true. I hate that the British media now has a two-month-plus lead time to wage a smear campaign on Harry ahead of the release.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.