Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are allegedly planning to amend their Netflix docuseries and his memoir. However, a royal expert, who weighed in on the future of Prince Harry's book, said he couldn't stop its release.
Prince Harry Couldn't Stop The Release Of His Book
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been estranged from the royal family after they stepped back from their royal duties in 2020. However, they had maintained a good relationship with the late Queen Elizabeth.
With King Charles on the throne, Prince Harry and Markle are reportedly planning to "soften" their content, so it won't be offensive to the senior royals. However, he might not be able to make all the changes he had in mind. Also, he couldn't stop the memoir's release in case Prince Harry had a change of heart.
"It's gone past the point now where the publisher is just okay about having that money paid back," Duncan Larcombe, former royal editor of The Sun, told Fox News Digital.
It's just the question, really, of how much has the queen's death meant that Harry and Meghan have had to have a rethink," he added.
He continued, "I think it's inevitable with delays that people will start to speculate as to what that means. 'Has Harry developed a conscience?'' Has he found his old conscience back?'… I really don't think there's any likelihood that Harry would even be able to stop Penguin from publishing, to be honest. It's all under contract and it's all signed and done, you know?"
Could Prince Harry Make The Changes He Has In Mind For His Memoir?
The author of Prince Harry: The Insider Story believed that the publisher has the upper hand in Prince Harry's memoir. Penguin Random House agreed to delay the release, but many weren't convinced that it would allow Prince Harry to change the content to make it more friendly to the royal family.
Royal biographer Tina Brown said that the publisher paid Prince Harry because he was supposed "to spill everything about his horrible life as a royal" in his memoir. Unfortunately, dropping the book would mean "there is no way back" for him in the royal fold.
Larcombe echoed the same sentiment adding that the publisher has invested "a lot of time, effort, money and so on in producing the book, addressing and doing all those things to it," so it will not just allow Prince Harry to "soften" the content due to the growing pressure he was feeling from his family.
"It could be their best-selling book of all time. Who knows," Larcombe added. "So they won't want to just turn around and say, 'Fair enough Harry. Yeah? You don't want to rock the boat anymore at this time.' Simply doesn't work like that. They're in a business commercial world now."
Prince Harry's biographer Angela Levin, author of Harry: A Biography of a Prince, also echoed Larcombe's sentiment.
"I don't know if the publisher will let him because it's almost ready to go, and publishers can't just suddenly quickly change things like a newspaper can," the "Harry: A Biography of a Prince" author said on GB News. "We'll have to wait and see what's in there."
Stay tuned for more news and updates about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.