Prince Harry is set for multi-million pound windfall from memoir Spare after raking in up to £22million from sales of the hardback, bestselling author Richard Osman claims

Prince Harry has already made £22million ($27million) from his book Spare despite it only being out in hardback, fellow bestselling author Richard Osman has claimed.

The Duke of Sussex’s controversial memoir became the UK’s fastest-selling non-fiction book ever after being published by Penguin Random House in January 2023.

Harry was understood to have clinched a £16million ($20million) advance as part of a £32million ($40million) four-book deal in June 2021 following a bidding war.

The 39-year-old royal’s headline-grabbing book saw him accuse his brother Prince William of pushing him into a dog bowl in a row over his wife Meghan Markle.

It also claimed William teased Harry about his panic attacks, that King Charles put his own interests above his second son and saw Harry reference taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms and his enjoyment of the TV show Friends.

Now, Osman – author of hit crime novels including The Thursday Murder Club – has used his publishing industry knowledge to estimate Harry’s income from the book.

Copies of Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ are pictured at a book store in London in January 2023
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Copies of Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ are pictured at a book store in London in January 2023

A customer holds copies of ‘Spare’ at a London book store during a midnight opening in 2023
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A customer holds copies of ‘Spare’ at a London book store during a midnight opening in 2023

Speaking on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, Osman said: ‘The book that 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.

‘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.’

A spokeswoman for Penguin Random House confirmed to MailOnline today that there is still no release date for the paperback version of Spare.

Osman added that Spare had become the ‘biggest hit of the last ten, 20 years’ and had ‘made everybody an enormous amount of money’.

Bestselling author Richard Osman, pictured with his wife Ingrid Oliver in London in February 2024, has estimated that Prince Harry has already made £22million ($27million) from Spare
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Bestselling author Richard Osman, pictured with his wife Ingrid Oliver in London in February 2024, has estimated that Prince Harry has already made £22million ($27million) from Spare

Osman made the claim on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, with co-host Marina Hyde
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Osman made the claim on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, with co-host Marina Hyde

He also pointed out that people were wrong to suggest the book was not a success because it was being heavily discounted or on the shelves of charity shops.

Osman added: ‘Harry is not making less money if it’s half-price. He makes exactly the same if you charge $28 and if you charge $14.

‘Also, he sells a lot in America. In America the royalties are absolutely insane because they pay a lot of money for books in America. So he has made a huge amount of money out of that book. So he’s got money coming in.’

Osman also pointed out that while the only well-known aspect of Meghan’s acting career has been Suits, the show had seen a resurgence in popularity.

The show – which first ran from 2011 until 2019 – set a new streaming record in the US in 2023 according to Nielsen.

The media analysts said it was watched for a total of 57.7 billion minutes on Netflix – beating The Office’s previous record of 57.1 billion minutes, from 2020.

And Osman said: ‘Meghan, the only thing we really know her from acting in is Suits. And Suits in the last year has become the biggest show in the world. So, as a couple, they’ve essentially got the biggest book I the world and the biggest TV show in the world.

‘Now I’m sure she’s not making a huge amount from Suits. But as a power couple, forget Netflix and Spotify, that’s not bad.

A poster advertises the midnight opening of a WH Smith store in London to sell Spare last year
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A poster advertises the midnight opening of a WH Smith store in London to sell Spare last year

Data obtained by The Bookseller in January found that Spare sold more than 700,000 copies in Britain last year, making it the country’s bestselling book of 2023 – ahead of Osman’s titles
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Data obtained by The Bookseller in January found that Spare sold more than 700,000 copies in Britain last year, making it the country’s bestselling book of 2023 – ahead of Osman’s titles

‘It’s not Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, but it’s not bad having the biggest book in the world and being in the biggest TV show in the world.’

Spare was the fastest-selling non-fiction book in the UK since records began in 1998, according to Nielsen BookData, despite extracts being leaked online.

Harry used the tell-all book to make various claims about his family including that William called Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’, and that Charles refused to allow Meghan to join Harry in Scotland as the late Queen was dying.

Data obtained by The Bookseller in January found that Spare sold more than 700,000 copies in Britain last year, making it the country’s bestselling book of 2023.

Elsewhere in the top five books from last year were two entries from Osman – The Last Devil to Die and The Bullet That Missed.

Harry has also been double-nominated at the British Book Awards for Spare.

The ghost-written autobiography has been given nods in the categories of narration audiobook non-fiction, which the Duke provided, and non-fiction: narrative. The ceremony takes place on May 13 in London.

MailOnline has contacted Archewell for comment over Osman’s claims.

Listen to Richard Osman and Marina Hyde’s podcast The Rest Is Entertainment here