Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I went into this book with an open mind. I am not particularly invested in the British monarchy, but it's been pretty hard to exist over the past few years and not be aware of the way Harry and Meghan have made headlines around the world - the effects of which have been polarising.

In choosing the format in which to consume this book, I decided on the audiobook because I wanted to hear Harry tell his own story. And honestly, I enjoyed every second of his telling of it. Not because it was particularly juicy or salacious, but I felt there was a genuine openness and honesty about him sharing some of the intimate details of his childhood, his life, and family dynamics that were, at times, incredibly sad and heartbreaking. The actual content of the book wasn't even about "spilling tea" - yes, he shared some personal moments that I felt provided a lot of clarity and context, but nothing that I thought was necessarily disrespectful to anyone. Enlightening, certainly, but not ill-intentioned. At least I didn't think so. He also didn't shy away from addressing his own mistakes and errors in judgement. He speaks about them frankly and his remorse felt genuine.

I'm not here to make the case that Harry is not a privileged man, or that he hasn't had the world at his feet from the moment he was born. That's obvious. But to be fair to Harry, he's not making that argument either. However, having privilege doesn't make someone unworthy of empathy. What Harry is saying is that there are loads of lies about him and his wife that have been smeared across tabloids for years - some instigated by his own family - and instead of remaining silent and allowing others to dictate his narrative, he wants to tell his own story, from his perspective. The idea that he should just turn a blind eye to falsehoods that are constantly circulated about him for clicks is absurd - would any of us continue to remain loyal to an institution that continuously lies about who we are and remains silent when unfair attacks and vicious racist rhetoric is bandied about for sport? I think not.

And honestly, I'm not interested in listening to the opinions of 1 star reviewers who read an excerpt out of context and now think they're qualified to share their misinformed opinions. Or people who out of spite rated a book poorly purely because they hate someone for merely breathing. To those people, check your priorities. 

No one has to like Harry or Meghan, nor does everyone have to agree with the decisions they've made. But the levels of hate directed at them for simply wanting to set the record straight is mind boggling to me. They have the right to share what their experiences have been like, and after 5.5 hours of listening, I can confidently say, I get it.