Spare: what does Prince Harry hope to achieve?

Extracts of Prince Harry’s autobiography, Spare, are being trailed all over the media today ahead of its official release next week. The book is said to tell his story of growing up, his mother’s death, disputes with his father and brother and generally lays bare his bitterness over the way he feels he was treated by his family.

We are only hearing one side of the story at the moment – from Harry – but whatever the truth, relationships have clearly broken down. As a Christian pastor, I know that family relationships can be challenging, especially when new relationships are introduced. This is even more pronounced for such a public family as the royal family of the United Kingdom.

However, I don’t think it’s commendable that Harry and Megan are dramatising and monetising their family squabbles. I am not saying they don’t have genuine grievances about how they have been treated. I really don’t know and neither do the majority of people commenting on this.

Promoting family harmony

It may well be that he was wronged and might be seeking reconciliation in the only way he knows how but I think public shaming is not really the way to deal with those issues, even in such an unusual family as the royal family, and I don’t see what they’re going to achieve other than more strife and disharmony (and financial gain). I have no idea Harry’s motivation, or what he hopes to achieve but I do not believe providing sensational stories to ravenous media is the way to promote family harmony.

The Bible gives us the categories and the wisdom to work through this from a Christian point of view. As believers in Christ who have been loved and forgiven and are learning from the breadth of teaching in God’s word, we would desire to show patience, love, and repentance, moving towards the hurting, offering forgiveness and operating without gossip and slander.

Our prayer for the whole royal family is that they are able to do that, driven by a deep faith and love in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only saviour who reconciles us to God, and to one another.