Prince Harry says he had enough material to write another memoir and chose not to publish some details because he was worried his father and brother would never forgive him if they were made public.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Duke of Sussex also said that Speer’s rough version was twice as long as the final draft and that he had difficulty deciding what to remove.
He added that many of the details that were eventually deleted related to his father and brother.
“The first draft was different,” he told interviewer Briony Gordon. “It was 800 pages, and now it’s down to 400 pages. It would have been two books, put it that way. And the hard part was getting things out.”
He added, “There are some things that happened, especially between me and my brother, and to some extent between me and my father, that I don’t want the world to know. Because I don’t think they’ll ever forgive me.”
Parts went on sale Tuesday in the UK, but has already been heavily tracked after copies were mistakenly sold out in Spain early on.
The Guardian was the first to reveal details from the diaries Including the claim that Prince William attacked Harry after a tense discussion about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace said they would not comment on the contents of the book.
Prince Harry is also speaking out about what he claims is a lack of support for him and Meghan.
News of the material surplus is likely to cause further consternation for the royal family.
In the interview, Harry said he knew he would be “trashed” for including anything about his family, but he couldn’t have written the memoir without including it.
He also criticized the press and claimed that the media has “a tiny bit of dirt on my family, which I know they have, and they’re sweeping it under the rug for sensationalist stories about someone else.”
The Duke reiterated that he was not trying to destroy the monarchy, but instead help reform it.
Referring to Prince William’s children — George, nine, Charlotte, seven, and Louis, four — Prince Harry said at least one of his brother’s children would be a “stand-in” and that it “hurts” and “worries” him.
He added, “This is not about trying to collapse the monarchy – it is about trying to save them from themselves.” “I know I will be crucified by many people who say that.”
In time, he suggested, the royal family could thank him for speaking openly about his trauma.
Meanwhile, he admitted that trying to change an “institution” and the media landscape was “no small task” but that he was adopting “long-term strategic thinking” to meet this “enormous” challenge.
