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LONDON — Prince Harry’s “Backup” has become the UK’s fastest-selling non-fiction book, its publisher said on Tuesday, after days of television interviews, leaks and the erroneous early publication of the memoir containing intimate revelations about the British royal family.
Harry’s book has attracted worldwide attention for its revelations about his personal struggles and accusations against other royals, including his father King Charles, stepmother Camilla and older brother Prince William.
“We always knew this book would fly, but it has exceeded even our best expectations,” Transworld Penguin Random House managing director Larry Finlay said in a statement.
“As far as we know, the only books that have sold more on their first day are the ones featuring the other Harry (Potter).”
Citing UK sales figures, the publisher said it has so far sold 400,000 copies in hardcover, e-book and audio formats.
Earlier in the day Caroline Lennon, a retail worker and one of the eager readers who flocked to bookshops to get their copy on the first day of its release, said she would read the book straight away as she posed for photographers .
“I like it, I like the royal family,” said Lennon, 59, the first and only person waiting to buy a copy at Waterstone’s bookshop in central London when it opened.
Despite the lack of queues, Waterstone’s said there were strong pre-orders for the memoir, which currently ranks as the best-seller on Amazon’s UK, US, Australian, German and Canadian websites.
“I know that maybe some of the things he said rubbed some people the wrong way,” Lai Jiang told Reuters after buying a copy in Singapore.
“And I know there are definitely a lot of people who say he shouldn’t come out and say the things he’s saying, but I believe Harry should be given a chance to say what he wants to say.”
Spares is the latest candid offering from Harry and his wife Meghan since they stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and moved to California to forge a new life, and follows their Netflix documentary last month.
READ: Prince Harry’s memoir to be published in January, titled ‘Spare’
The royal family has not commented on the book or the interviews and is unlikely to.
Excerpts from the book were leaked last Thursday, when its Spanish-language edition was also put on sale by mistake in some bookstores in Spain.
Harry spoke about his grief and growing up after the death of his mother Princess Diana when he was just 12, his use of cocaine and other drugs to cope, how he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving as a soldier in Afghanistan, and even how he lost his virginity.
He also revealed a heated row with William, the heir to the throne, saying his brother had overthrown him, and how the pair begged his father not to marry Camilla, who he married in 2005 and is now the Queen’s consort .
READ ALSO: Prince Harry says William knocked him to the floor in an argument over Meghan – Keeper
In television interviews ahead of the book’s launch, Harry doubled down on accusations that some royals, including Camilla and William, had leaked tabloid stories that harmed either him or his wife, Meghan, to protect themselves or boost reputations you are
CONNECTED: Prince Harry says UK royals slept with ‘devil’ in tabloid press
“I think she (his mother Diana) would be heartbroken that William and his office were part of these stories,” he told Good Morning America (GMA).
In another interview with the CBS show 60 Minutes, he said Camilla was a tabloid “villain” and needed to rehabilitate her image, which made her “dangerous.”
“I don’t think of her as an evil stepmother. I see someone who has married into this institution and has done everything possible to improve his reputation and his own image,” he told GMA.
While Harry’s revelations have dominated British media headlines over the past week, interest in his revelations is far from universal.
“I wasn’t planning to (read the book) as it happened, or certainly not as an early priority,” Business Secretary Grant Shapps told Times Radio on Tuesday. “I still have a thing or two to do.”
— Additional reporting by Kylie MacLellan, Muvija M and Lion Schellerer in Singapore; Editing by Raisa Kasolovski, Alexandra Hudson
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