Prince Harry Recalls Using Cocaine at Age 17 in Memoir

In Prince Harry's upcoming memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex recalled using cocaine at the age of 17: "It did make me feel different, and that was my main objective."

By Kisha Forde Jan 06, 2023 3:15 PMTags

Prince Harry is pulling back the curtain on the details of his adolescence.

In his upcoming memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex recalled using cocaine at 17 years old, sharing that he was offered the drug during a "hunting weekend."

"Of course I had been taking cocaine at that time," Harry wrote, according to the Spanish language version of Harry's upcoming book obtained by NBC News. "At someone's house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line, and since then I had consumed some more."

But as the royal, now 38, recalled, his experience was not all that pleasant.

"It wasn't very fun, and it didn't make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others," he wrote. "But it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different."

As Harry—who is the youngest son of King Charles III and the late Princess Diana—explained, his objective at the time was to defy the norm.

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"I was a seventeen-year-old willing to try almost anything that would alter the pre-established order," he continued. "At least, that's what I was trying to convince myself of."

NBC News has reached out to Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace and they have declined to comment. A rep for Prince Harry also declined to comment to NBC News on the record.

The latest quotes from the Duke of Sussex's forthcoming book are the most recent that have made waves ahead of its release. In quotes published by The Guardian Jan. 4, Harry alleged his brother, Prince William, knocked him to the floor during a 2019 confrontation after William called Harry's wife Meghan Markle "difficult, rude and abrasive."

According to the outlet, Harry wrote that their fight "happened so fast" after the two exchanged words over "the whole rolling catastrophe" of their brotherhood.

James Whatling / MEGA

"He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor," Harry continued. "I landed on the dog's bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out."

Spare will be released Jan. 10.

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Spare by Prince Harry

For more revelations from Prince Harry, check out his book Spare

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