Eagle-eyed Spare readers spot a mistake in Harry’s memory about his 13th birthday
The Duke has claimed he was given an Xbox by his mum for his 13th birthday - despite it not being released for another four years.
Royal fans have spotted a slip-up from Prince Harry in his new book – over a present he received for his 13th birthday.
The Duke writes in his highly-anticipated memoir that Princess Diana bought him an Xbox for his birthday – despite it not being released for another four years.
In Spare, Prince Harry says he was handed a present by his aunt, Diana’s sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale on the day of his birthday.
It was just two weeks after his mum was killed in a car crash in Paris.
Recounting the day Harry says he was allowed to choose two flavours of sorbet, so picked blackcurrant and mango because they were ‘Mummy’s favourites’.
Harry says that he was asked to make a wish and was thinking of Diana when ‘out of nowhere’ his aunt Sarah appeared holding a box.
He ‘tore at the wrapping paper, peered inside’ and saw he had received an Xbox.
According to Harry, his aunt Sarah revealed that Diana had bought the games console for him shortly before her death, while she was in Paris.
Harry says he was thrilled with the gift because he loved video games.
In Spare, he writes: ‘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. Pa said Mummy hurt her head, but perhaps I was the one with brain damage? As a defence mechanism, most likely, my memory was no longer recording things quite as it once did.’
It does appear that Harry might be getting confused though, as the Xbox wasn’t actually available to buy until four years later.
Released in 2001, Xbox was Microsoft’s first entry into the world of gaming, which placed it in direct competition with Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s GameCube.
It hadn’t even been announced until March 2000, so it seems Harry may have got mixed up with another games console.
Harry was a big lover of video games as a child, but in his adult years has raised concerns over the dangers of online gaming.
In April 2019, the Duke of Sussex launched a scathing attack on social media and gaming, in particular Fortnite.
He called for a ban on the action game, which is played by millions around the world, because it was ‘created to addict’.
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