From cocaine to Afghanistan killings: Prince Harry's 'Spare'

Key revelations have leaked from Prince Harry's much-awaited autobiography, "Spare," after the book was mistakenly put on the bookshelves in Spain on Thursday (picture) — and quickly removed again — ahead of its official release date on January 10 in English and worldwide in 15 other languages.

After obtaining a copy, Sky News also published on Thursday key revelations from "Spare," including experiences from Harry's youth, such as how he lost his virginity to an "older woman" and took cocaine.

The revelations follow an exclusive report from The Guardian about Harry being physically attacked by his brother, a confrontation that is also detailed in the upcoming memoir.

The headline-grabbing stories come at a time when the royal family finds itself in a phase of transition, just months after Queen Elizabeth II's death and in the run-up to King Charles' coronation set on May 6.

The tell-all book follows the recent release of a Netflix documentary in December 2022, in which Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, made accusations against the media and the royal family, too. 

Cocaine 'wasn't much fun'

According to Sky News, Harry admitted that during his wilder party years, he "of course" took cocaine.

"At someone's house on a hunting weekend, I was offered a line and then I took some again," he reportedly writes in the memoir.

"It wasn't much fun, it didn't make me particularly happy," he adds, "but it made me feel different."

"I was a 17-year-old who wanted to try anything that would upset the established order," writes Harry, who was reportedly the Queen's favorite grandson. 

The prince also describes smoking cannabis and drinking at the Windsor Castle golf course while a student at Eton.

25 Taliban killed in Afghanistan

King Charles' youngest son, who served in the army for 10 years, also reportedly reveals that he killed 25 "enemy combatants" in Afghanistan, whom he saw as "pieces of a chess game."

He reportedly writes that he set himself the goal "from day one that I would never go to bed with any doubts that I had done the right thing, that I had shot Taliban and only Taliban, with no civilians nearby."

He adds that in the age of Apache helicopters and computers, he knows "exactly how many enemy fighters" he killed. "And it seemed essential to me not to be afraid of that number, 25," which gives him neither "satisfaction" nor "embarrassment."

'Public live soap opera'

The Guardian first reported on Thursday morning that Prince Harry's memoirs detail a physical altercation with his brother over Meghan.

Harry refers to Prince William as his "beloved brother and arch-nemesis," and claims that he was knocked to the floor by his brother during the fight that left him "scrapes and bruises."

Media across the world picked up the stories, as it is "a public live soap opera with some of the most famous individuals in the world," Mark Borkowski, PR agent and crisis consultant, told Sky News. People, he added, are "fascinated by the lives of celebrities."

Talked out of getting an investigation into Diana's death

Another chapter revealed by Sky News concerns the death of Princess Diana in 1997. In his memoir, Prince Harry recalls the moment his father told him that his mother had been in a car accident. 

Prince Harry reportedly claims that he and Prince William were dissuaded from jointly asking for an investigation into her death.

He also recalls how, after he was born, his father supposedly told the Princess of Wales that his son's arrival was wonderful and that now that they had a royal heir and a spare, his work was done.

According to Sky News, the book also details how both princes asked their father not to marry Camilla. Charles and Camilla, who will take the title of Queen Consort as the spouse of the king, were married in 2005.

Neither Kensington Palace nor Buckingham Palace has commented on the claims leaked from Harry's book.For just a few more days, people will have to make do with the snippets the media have released, and wait to read for themselves the book promoted in bold letters on the website, princeharrymemoir.com, as: "His Words, His Story."

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier