How Prince Harry amazed Britain on this day a year ago with the blockbuster book Spare. The relentless attacks on his family have earned him millions. But today the damage seems as great as ever…

Few expected its extraordinary success. After all, Prince Harry is hardly known for his literary skills.

But when Spare hit shelves on this day a year ago, it became an international phenomenon. More than three million copies were sold worldwide in the first week alone, and 1.4 million in the first 24 hours.

According to publisher Penguin Random House, it was the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever seen in Britain.

The steady stream of royal and personal revelations is said to be the result of a $20 million book deal and has been a huge commercial success for Prince Harry – and given his voice unprecedented global reach.

But at what price?

Although significant parts of the material were reportedly removed from the book at a late stage, Harry’s unflinching commentary on William, Kate and other royals is believed to have driven a wedge between the prince and his family.

Twelve months later, the distance between them shows no signs of closing.

The highly anticipated launch of Spare seemed to go wrong when a blunder in Spain resulted in the content – ​​in translation – being released five days early.

It was pulled from the shelves within hours, but not before the prince’s personal stories about his life circulated electronically around the world.

The extra publicity didn’t seem to hurt.

Some British stores opened late for the midnight release of the biggest royal book since Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, collaborated with Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story in 1992.

Some of those waiting outside shops in London as Monday 9 January turned into Tuesday 10 expressed their condolences for the prince’s apparent emotional distress at the tragic loss of his adored mother – detailed in the book.

But many considered airing so much dirty linen an unforgivable betrayal of his family.

The book was published just four months after the death of the queen, his grandmother.

Harry’s explosive memoir chronicles his life from his mother’s death in August 1979 to Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022.

Much of the material, written by JD Moehringer, focuses on his own grief and healing.

However, attacks on fellow royals peppered every chapter, from portraying his brother as an ‘arch-enemy’ to claiming that King Charles had failed him as a father.

One of the memoir’s most shocking revelations were claims that Harry and William had an explosive row after – it is claimed – the older brother called Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’.

The book alleged that William grabbed him by the collar, broke his chain and knocked him to the ground, where he injured himself on a dog bowl – which broke.

We have not yet heard William’s side of this and many other stories that appear in Spare.

As for his father, while Harry was less critical than some expected, the prince portrayed Charles as an ineffective father who couldn’t even hug him when he told him about his mother’s death.

The prince claimed that Charles tried to mend fences between William and Harry at Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021, saying: “Please, boys, don’t make my last years a misery.”

There were also strange hostages of fortune. Harry’s statement that he had killed 25 members of the Taliban while serving on the front lines was poorly received across the board.

His story about losing his virginity, meanwhile, was so thinly disguised that the other party was identified and interviewed almost immediately.

The reaction of the royal family was eagerly awaited. Yet not a word was said. Family members must have been sorely tempted to speak out, but ultimately they stuck to the “never complain, never explain” approach that has served them well over the years.

A source who knew the late Queen Elizabeth well told MailOnline that they felt ‘almost comforted’ that she was no longer alive to see what her grandson had done.

“Her Majesty would be devastated,” the source said.

And that was undoubtedly true of Harry’s father, Charles.

It reported that Harry wanted to ‘cancel the publication’ of his impressive memoir Spare after visiting Britain for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2021.

The Duke of Sussex’s reservations may have arisen after the royals told him there would be “no turning back” if it was published while the Queen was still alive, sources at the book’s publisher speculated.

Following his visit to his wife Meghan, the team at Penguin Random House was reportedly told that the prince had “pulled it” and that “he doesn’t want to do it.”

Although no official reason was ever given, it was rumored that the publisher had given Harry an ‘ultimatum’ not to publish while his grandmother was still alive.

But “that all changed with the monarch’s death in September,” the publishing source said.

Although other reports suggested that the experience of the anniversary and family unity at his grandmother’s funeral prompted some significant revisions to the text.

The royal family did its best to appear calm.

Two days later, Prince William and Kate Middleton opened the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

They appeared cheerful and at ease in matching navy blue and green outfits, presenting a united front were received with cheers.

Ahead of the book’s release in the early hours of January 10, the Duke toured the TV studios and took part in interviews with the likes of CBS’ ITV’s Tom Bradby and Anderson Cooper.

Mr Bradby, a former royal correspondent and presenter of ITV News at Ten, was friends with the Sussexes and had previously interviewed them for a documentary about their 2019 tour of Africa.

During their interview, he alternated between answering questions from Bradby and reading portions of his memoir.

Speaking to Anderson Cooper, Harry appeared to dismiss his father’s feelings on the matter by labeling Camilla as ‘the bad guy’ and ‘dangerous’.

The prince says he still has questions about his mother’s death.