Duke of Sussex Prince Harry initially cancelled his memoir before Queen died

The Duke of Sussex Prince Harry pulled out of publishing his memoir before the death of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth because he feared never being allowed to return to the Royal fold.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on their way to view tributes to Queen Elizabeth in September. Picture: Getty

The Duke of Sussex had cold feet and cancelled the publication of his memoir during his visit to Britain last summer fearing the ailing Queen would never let him return to the Royal fold.

The revelation comes as senior British military figures condemned his book Spare, which lifts the lid on royal rifts at the palace, for its brag that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan, seen as a “betrayal” of the British military and for breaking “an unwritten code.”

A source at US publishing team at Penguin Random House, which had been working on Spare, said they were told: “He’s pulled it. He doesn’t want to do it.”

A poster advertising the launch of Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ in a London store window. Picture: Getty

Harry is understood to have had grave doubts about going ahead with the deal for which he was paid a multimillion-pound advance, while visiting the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June.

“The rumour was that during the visit it was made clear to him that if he published while the Queen was still alive there would be no way back. Obviously that all changed with the monarch’s death in September,” a source at the publishing house said.

He was encouraged to go ahead with the book deal for which he has been paid a fortune.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in June 2022. Picture: AFP

The Queen was said to have been left “deeply troubled” by the impending publication of the book and her concerns, aides say, had weighed on her health in the run up to her death.

The book details Harry feelings growing up in a tightly-shut and dysfunctional institution and hurls barbs at his father the king, his brother the Prince of Wales, sister-in-law Princess of Wales and the Queen Consort.

Harry’s brag of how many he killed while serving in the military has raised concerns for his safety amid fears of terrorist revenge attacks and condemned as “naive” by Colonel Tim Collins, who gave a rousing speech before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“Harry has been badly advised describing killing Taliban fighters as like removing chess pieces,” he told the UK Times newspaper.

“The military has always embraced him into the family no matter what had gone on before,” Colonel Collins said.

“He’s now betrayed that trust in the same way he’s betrayed his birth family.

“I think he’s completely naive.”

“There’s no understanding of what he’s doing and what he has done. He needs somebody to put their arm around him, but not somebody who is putting their arm around him in order to make money,” he said.

Originally published as Duke of Sussex Prince Harry initially cancelled his memoir before Queen died