Breaking News: Prince Harry’s Memoir Spare Released in Paperback: See His Emotional Dedication…. Read More

The Duke of Sussex dedicated the bestselling book to loved one

As Prince Harry’s groundbreaking memoir Spare hits shelves in paperback, here’s a look at the special dedication that shaped the book.

On October 22, the Duke of Sussex’s memoir was released in paperback in the U.S., with the U.K. edition set to follow on October 24. When Penguin Random House announced the paperback edition over the summer, they confirmed that “the contents of the book are unchanged,” including Prince Harry’s heartfelt dedication to his family.

For Meg and Archie and Lili…and of course, my mother,” Prince Harry wrote in the dedication of Spare, which was originally published in January 2023.

The tribute honors his wife, Meghan Markle, their children, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, and his late mother, Princess Diana, who died following a car accident in Paris in 1997 at age 36.

The epigraph — the quote that opens a book — also carries significant meaning. It features a poignant line from William Faulkner’s novel Requiem for a Nun: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

While paperback editions of books commonly feature new chapters or information, the decision not to include anything new in the paperback version of Spare has been widely interpreted as a step towards reconciliation with the royal family. The Duke of Sussex’s relationships with his father, King Charles, and brother, Prince William, remain strained.

Spare is structured into three distinct parts, where Prince Harry reflects on his royal upbringing and the impact of his mother’s death, his career in the British Army and his love story with Meghan, whom he married in 2018. The three sections, “Out of the night that covers me,” “Bloody, but unbowed” and “Captain of my soul,” seem to be inspired by lines from the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley.

Invictus means “unconquered” in Latin, and the Duke of Sussex founded the Invictus Games as an international adaptive sports tournament for service personnel and veterans in 2014. The competition’s motto, “I am,” comes from Henley’s poem and ends with the triumphant lines, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

The poem is a reminder that you have the power to take control of your life,” Prince Harry told PEOPLE in 2022.

Spare became a bestseller when it was published on Jan. 10, 2023, selling over six million copies worldwide and setting the Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time, the publisher said. The book was full of royal revelations and the title itself seemed to stem from the adage “the heir and the spare,” reflecting Prince Harry’s position at birth as the “spare” to his elder brother Prince William, who is now heir to the British throne.

Speaking to PEOPLE in 2023, Prince Harry described his memoir as a “raw account” of “the good, the bad and everything in between.”

“I don’t want to tell anyone what to think of it and that includes my family,” the Duke of Sussex said at the time. “This book and its truths are in many ways a continuation of my own mental health journey. It’s a raw account of my life.”

My hope has been to turn my pain into purpose, so if sharing my experience makes a positive difference in someone’s life, well, I can’t think of anything more rewarding than that!” he said.