Prince Harry's 1997 Xbox mystery finally solved

Just like Prince Harry fact-checks The Crown, people are fact-checking stories from his memoir Spare and one story has stood out as obviously not true.

Throughout the book, the Duke of Sussex writes candidly about his mother, Princess Diana. He recalls his life with her, her eventual death, and the aftermath - specifically how it impacted him and his brother, Prince William.

But he also writes candidly about his family and how they made it difficult for him to decipher true stories from false- especially regarding Diana.

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In one chapter of Spare, Harry recounts how for his 13th birthday he received an Xbox which he was told was purchased by his mother before his birthday.

Harry’s 13th birthday was in September 1997, just two weeks after Diana died in August of that year.

“I was pleased. I loved video games,” Harry wrote.

However, readers were quick to note that the first-generation Xbox console was released until November 2001 - four years after Harry’s anecdote takes place.

In fact, Xbox didn’t even exist as a company until after 1999.

@abbymcecilia

But in the same story about the Xbox, Harry acknowledges that he has no idea if the story is true because it was only told to him.

"That’s the story anyway. It’s appeared in many accounts of my life, as gospel, and I have no idea if it’s true," he writes.

The small story about his 13th birthday gives readers insight into how Harry's brain suffered from the trauma of losing his mother in a very public and devastating way. It manipulated his memories making it difficult to recall the true events surrounding that period of his life.

He adds, "Pa said Mummy hurt her head, but perhaps I was the one with brain damage? As a defense mechanism, most likely, my memory was no longer recording things quite as it once did."

That being said, Harry may have actually received a video game console purchased by his mother before his birthday.

But it was likely a Playstation or The Nintendo 64.

@abigailb

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