Peopl Harry 'I Am Exactly Where I Am Meant to Be'

PRINCE HARRY PUTS HIMSELF OUT THERE LIKE NEVER BEFORE AS HE OPENS UP ABOUT HIS NEW MEMOIR, SPARE, AND HIS HOPES FOR THE FUTURE 

-  ERIN HILL

Prince Harry has shared more about himself in the past week than he has in the 38 years prior-a seismic shift that has left him feeling that for the first time in his extraordinary life, the world is finally seeing him for who he is, on his terms. Until now, he writes in his bestselling new memoir, Spare, he felt most defined, both publicly and privately, by his role as the "spare" to his brother Prince William, 40, the heir. Amid days of interviews and intense reaction to the unprecedented book, the Duke of Sussex is in a contemplative mood as he speaks with People about "the raw account" he offers over the course of 416 candid pages, which explore everything from the death of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was just 12 years old to the loss of his virginity at 17 to his painfully fractured relationship with his father, King Charles, 74, and brother William.

Although his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, 41, was by his side as they shared details about their courtship and decision to step back from royal life in 2020 in last month's widely viewed Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, he's now speaking out solo-and finding himself in the hot seat as a global audience chews over many of the most intimate details of his life.

Why, then, bare all? While writing a new chapter in California alongside Meghan and the couple's children, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 19 months, he says he is finally free to use his own voice to speak out against the forces within the royal family, the institution, society at large and the press, he saysthat led to his decision to leave his U.K. homeland. "It never needed to be this way," he told ITV's Tom Bradby, alleging that the "leaking and planting" of stories in the British press by the palace and members of his family left him no choice but to flee.