Following the formal announcement of it’s title and publication date this week, the memoir began trending on social media, with users not only discussing the content of the book but also uploading memes and satirical posts.

One Twitter user posted a text extract which suggested it was from a leaked passage of the memoir in which the prince claims, “bowling saved my life,” but is the extract genuine?

The Claim

On October 27, Twitter user Carlos Greaves posted two images; one illustrating promotional material for Prince Harry’s upcoming memoir; the second, a screenshot of text written in the voice of the royal.

The author, who it is implied is Harry, recounts an evening where he was saved from contemplating ending his own life when he stumbled into a bowing alley, claiming eventually that “bowling saved my life.”

The implied extract reads:

The tweet includes the caption: “Y’all, this book is nuts.”

Inside, they were playing this game I’d never heard of called “Bowling.” I guess it’s pretty popular in America. You grab a big heavy ball and roll it towards a group of pins that you’re trying to knock over. When you’re in the bowling alley, everything else fades away and there’s just the sound of balls rolling down lanes and pins falling over. It’s like yoga but for cool tough guys. Needless to say I was hooked.

Bowling saved my life that day.

As of Friday, October 28, it has gathered more than a quarter of a million likes and was shared at least 25,000 times.

The Facts

Prince Harry announced that he would publish a memoir in July 2021 through a collaboration with publishers Penguin Random House.

In a statement released at the time, Harry said he was writing the book “not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become,” and that he was “excited for people to read a first-hand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”

An update on the book was provided over a year later, with the publication date of January 10, 2023 and the title Spare being announced on October 27, 2022.

Penguin Random House described the book as a “landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”

With this announcement, a short summarizing paragraph was released alongside one promotional image of the book jacket. It read:

Aside from this information no other details as to the content of the book have been released, including official extracts.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

That also applies to the passage “quoted” in the Twitter post: it was not taken from Harry’s upcoming book, but made up as a joke.

Carlos Greaves, the Twitter user who posted the viral extract, is a satirical writer, based in the U.S. who is a contributor to The Onion and author of the upcoming book Spoilers: Essays That Might Ruin Your Favorite Hollywood Movies.

In a Tweet linked below the viral Prince Harry extract, Greaves appeared to highlight the satirical nature of the post, writing: “Follow me for more silly stuff like this, and if you like books, check out the one I’m writing!”

The extract’s joking claim that bowling saved Harry’s life comes after the prince gave his memoir the title of Spare. In the sport of bowling, a spare is a technical term for when a player knocks down all pins after two balls.

Greaves told Newsweek:

The Ruling

“I included details like spelling Meghan Markle’s name wrong and using the name of the bowling alley from The Big Lebowski to make it clear it was a joke, and I did not intend for the tweet to be misleading or to be interpreted as an actual leak from the book.”

Satire.

This post was created by satirical writer Carlos Greaves who is known for producing humorous content based on pop culture moments.

Greaves confirmed to Newsweek that the Tweet appearing to show a leaked extract from Prince Harry’s upcoming memoir was written by himself, with the bowling reference a take-down of the book’s title, Spare.

The royal does not claim “bowling saved my life” in any officially released material associated with his memoir.

Newsweek approached representatives of Penguin Random House for comment.

FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK

If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours every day. Or dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.