Prince Harry's book in the headlines once again, 10 months after its release: Here's why

Prince Harry is always at the focal point of global headlines. From Prince Harry and Meghan’s recent trip to Germany to their alleged feud with David and Victoria Beckham, Harry seems to be in the middle of it all.

Flashback to the beginning of the year, Harry perhaps got the most media attention as his book ‘Spare’ was released. And with it, Harry spilled the beans about the contradictions and hypocrisies that existed in the royal family.

In fact, a contributing factor for his relationship with Prince William to become bitter is said to have been because of the book. But, a few months into its release the headlines about Spare died down, only to be brought up again recently 10 months after its release. Here’s why Spare is making headlines at the moment.

The interview

For some context, author Gabor Maté played an active role in promoting the Duke of Sussex’s memoir earlier this year. And he even interviewed Prince Harry, during which he claims that he didn’t go with his gut, and he lost himself during the process of the interview.

The interview dived deep into Harry’s huge claims in the book including the mental health implications of Diana’s death on Harry. While revealing big mental health impacts from Harry’s memoir, Gabor himself was struggling with his share of mental health issues, which he believes manifested in the interviewing process. Here’s what it is.

The mental health impact

The issues here are multifold. Firstly, Gabor Maté revealed on the podcast titled The Diary of a CEO, that he was undergoing mental distress during the time of his interview with Prince Harry. This was mainly due to his lengthy and trying book tour, which focussed on trauma.

He was unhappy with the fact that people were charged to have access to his discussion with the prince. Both Prince Harry and Gabor wanted the public to have free access to the interview, but they were shut down by their lawyers who thought it could turn into a lawsuit. As per Newsweek, Gabor Maté said the following about the interview.

“I had a gut feeling all along that I shouldn't agree to doing it the way they set it up."

"In other words, I believed that this should be a free public service, on the part of two people who can have a very interesting conversation, but out of sheer opportunism, I agreed to it. So, I didn't follow my gut feelings, I lost myself even in agreeing to the format."

"I agreed to something that I didn't really like. Not that I didn't like the idea of talking with him [Harry] I didn't like the idea of putting this behind the paywall so I lost myself just in agreeing to it."

The reaction from British media

Another major contributing factor that led to Gabor rethinking his actions from 10 months ago was how the British reacted to this interview. He deemed their reactions as demeaning and dismissing, and he even said that he was deemed a "stern, overbearing merchant of pain" by the British audience. He said the following about Britain’s reaction to the discussion:

"It was for the most part so negative and so demeaning and so dismissive and so distorted that I barely even know how to talk about it," he said.

"I thought by this age I would know better but you know what it really got to me it really got to me."

These reactions and intense media attention are said to have affected Maté’s mental health adversely, given all the negative impact that spilled over to his life.

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