Prince Harry will no doubt celebrate his 40th birthday tomorrow with his closest relatives and friends.
But one family member who he probably wishes he could be sharing his special day with is his late mother Princess Diana. Harry was just 12 when she died aged just 36 following a car crash in Paris, which left the world in shock.
Just two weeks after her untimely death, Harry officially turned a teenager and celebrated his 13th birthday. At that time, he had just returned to his boarding school, Ludgrove, after the summer holidays and was trying to adjust to his new heartbreaking reality of life without his beloved mum.
Harry with his late mother Princess Diana ( Image: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
In his new memoir Spare, he reveals how he enjoyed a birthday cake and sorbet at the school before being presented with a gift by his aunt, Diana’s sister Sarah McCorquodale. And he says that the gift was an X-box games console that Diana had bought for him before she had died and had been planning to give him on his special day.
He details how he tore off the wrapping paper to reveal the games console and was told how his mum bought it for him. Harry writes: “It was an Xbox. I was happy; I loved video games.”
However, those who have read his memoir have pointed out that the Xbox wasn’t actually available to buy until four years later. Released in 2001, Xbox was Microsoft’s first entry into the world of console electronic gaming, which placed it in direct competition with Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s GameCube.
But as Harry couches in his autobiography: “That’s the story, anyway. It’s appeared in many accounts of my life, as gospel, and I have no idea if it’s true. Pa said Mummy hurt her head, but perhaps I was the one with brain damage? As a defence mechanism, most likely, my memory was no longer recording things quite as it once did.”
Harry and Meghan with their children Archie and Lilibet ( Image: Instagram/Alexi Lubomirski)
Harry has called his kids his best gift ( Image: Netflix)
Even his Pulitzer Prize-winning ghostwriter JR Moehringer also defended the book after it was criticised for inaccuracies. In the days after the book was released, he posted on X a quote by Mary Karr, author of The Art of Memoir, which said: “The line between memory and fact is blurry, between interpretation and fact. There are inadvertent mistakes of those kind out of the wazoo.”
He also shared several passages from Spare, where Harry admits that his words are how he remembers it. One said: “Whatever the cause, my memory is my memory. It does what it does, gathers and curates as it sees fit, and there’s just as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective facts.”
Earlier this week, ahead of his 40th birthday, Harry spoke out revealing his favourite ever gift – his children. The Duke of Sussex told how he has told how he has found happiness in fatherhood. “The best gift I’ve ever been given is, without a doubt, my kids,” he said. “I enjoy watching them grow every single day, and I love being their dad.”
It came as America’s People magazine – the chosen publication of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – reported that despite recent speculation Harry has no plans to return to royal duties. They described him as being “happy with his life in Montecito, California” and concentrating on his charitable endeavours.
Following his birthday celebrations, the Duke will visit New York City later this month to promote several projects close to his heart, including the organization behind Princess Diana’s Legacy Award. He is also focused on his work with his Archewell Foundation, the non-profit he co-founded with Meghan, and a series of entertainment projects through their Netflix deal, including an upcoming documentary airing in December that’s centred on his passion for polo.
