Prince Harry addresses sexuality speculation in blistering new book

Prince Harry’s new memoir Spare covers a multitude of the prince’s most personal memories including people “frequently” speculating on his sexuality.

In the book, the prince reflects on frequently overhearing members of the public question if he was gay, while waiting in line in the supermarket. 

He says he has been tempted to respond to speculation about his sexuality.

“More than once I watched customers read about me, overheard them debating me,” he recalls.

“In 2015 I overheard them frequently discussing whether or not I’d ever marry. Whether or not I was happy. Whether or not I might be gay. 

“I was always tempted to tap them on the shoulder… ‘Ello,‘” he shares. 

He describes calling out an elderly couple for heatedly discussing his life choices with a cashier.

“I stepped forward, showed my face, cleared my throat: ‘Excuse me. Not sure what’s going on here, but I don’t think you should be speaking to her like that.’”

His newly released memoir also discusses his close friendship with gay singer-songwriter Elton John and how they once had a tense disagreement. 

Harry and wife, Meghan, visited the singer in France in 2019.

On the last night of their stay, a disagreement was sparked after it came out the musician planned to serialise his autobiography in the Daily Mail – a publication Harry and Megan have taken legal action against previously.

Harry has previously proved himself to be an LGBTQ+ ally, and in 2008, when he was a tank commander, he experienced a homophobic incident while working with gay solider James Wharton. 

In an interview with Forces News,Wharton recounted the situation which was caused by soldiers from another regiment not liking that he was gay. 

“They were sort of chest poking me and making me feel quite uncomfortable,” Wharton said.

“I got into my tank where Prince Harry was doing something, and he could see that I was clearly affected by something and he asked me what the problem was.”

Wharton continued: “I told him that there were a couple of soldiers outside who weren’t very happy with the fact that I was gay.”

He said Harry was “quite offended” that he was picked on and so took it upon himself to speak to the soldiers and ensure the anti-gay bullying didn’t happen again. 

“He told them off and they left me alone,” he said.

Wharton, who became the first openly gay man to appear on the cover of Soldier Magazine in 2009, said he will “always be grateful to Harry”.

In 2017, Prince Harry collected a posthumous award on behalf of his late mother, Princess Diana, for her groundbreaking HIV/AIDS activism. 

The following year, Harry and Elton John launched the international group MenStar Coalition. 

MenStar is a conglomerate of groups working in the fight against AIDS, including the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson, the US government’s PEPFAR programme, The Global Fund, and Unitaid.