Prince Harry reportedly made up to £22 million ($27 million) upon the release of his memoir Spare last year, it has been revealed.
As reported by the Mail, bestselling author Richard Osman made the claim of Harry’s likely payout – despite Spare only being available in hardback.
The Duke of Sussex’s controversial memoir became the UK’s fastest-selling non-fiction book after it was released by Penguin Random House in January 2023.
The publication reported that Harry was understood to have clinched a £16million ($20million) advance as part of a £32million ($40million) four-book deal in 2021 following a bidding war.
Speaking on his podcast The Rest is Entertainment, Richard said: “The book that [Prince] Harry wrote, it’s impossible to overestimate how much money that has made. I mean, it’s been one of the most successful books. The fastest selling non-fiction book of all time.”
He added: “I’ve done some back of the envelope calculations because I like to. I know what you get paid per book. Got a $20million advance. Thing with an advance is, you get paid in advance, $20million in that case, you do not make a penny until your publisher makes back their $20million.
“And once they’ve made back their $20million, and there’s all sorts of sliding scales about how that works, what they get, what you get, once you’ve made the $20million, then you get your royalties.
“I think – and his book has not come out in paperback yet. So this book is purely hardback. I reckon he’s made $26, $27million.
“So he’s earned out an advance of $20million on the hardback of his first book alone. Forget rights to other things and audiobooks and what have you. He has earned that out already. When the paperback comes out, it’s just money rolling into the Sussexes.”
This comes as, as of October 22, the Duke of Sussex’s memoir officially launched as a paperback in the United States. The UK edition is set to follow on October 24.
Despite the second printing, Penguin Random House confirmed that “the content of the book remains unchanged”.
“For Meg and Archie and Lili…and of course, my mother,” wrote Prince Harry in the dedication of Spare, which was first published in January 2023.