Ronald Regan's daughter Patti Davis says Prince Harry may regret 'Spare', reveals remorse over own book
The youngest daughter of the late President Ronald Reagan, Patti Davis, has cautioned Prince Harry and said he may regret writing his memoir ‘Spare', which is set to be published worldwide on Tuesday, January 10. She said, "not every truth has to be told to the entire world."
In an op-ed for The New York Times published on January 7, Davis compared the Duke of Sussex's upcoming book with her 1992 autobiography 'The Way I See It', which narrated her "father's emotional abandonment of her, her mother's cruelty, and the family's bitter rivalries," as stated on Goodreads. She wrote, "My justification in writing a book I now wish I hadn’t written… was very similar to what I understand to be Harry’s reasoning. I wanted to tell the truth, I wanted to set the record straight. Naïvely, I thought if I put my own feelings and my own truth out there for the world to read, my family might also come to understand me better." Davis added by saying, "During the early stages of my father’s Alzheimer’s, when he still had lucid moments, I apologized to him for writing an autobiography many years earlier in which I flung open the gates of our troubled family life. He was already talking less at that point, but his eyes told me he understood."
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Advice for Prince Harry
"I thought of that moment when I read that Prince Harry, in his new memoir, wrote about his father, King Charles, getting between his battling sons and saying, ‘Please, boys, don’t make my final years a misery.’ Time is an unpredictable thing…I had the gift of time with my father, which allowed me to apologize, even though a disease hovered between us and clouded our communication. King Charles’s words reveal a man who is aware of his mortality and who would like his offspring to be aware of it as well," she said, who further explained there are multiple versions of the truth. "People generally don’t respond well to being embarrassed and exposed in public. And in the ensuing years, I’ve learned something about the truth: It’s way more complicated than it seems when we’re young. There isn’t just one truth, our truth — the other people who inhabit our story have their truths as well," Davis expressed, as quoted by Fox News.
'William's truth has to be considered as well'
Talking about the physical altercation between Harry and Prince William in 2019, Davis said, "Prince William has, I’m sure, his own take on the physical fight that Harry has described. To really understand the dynamic between the brothers, to broaden the story, and make it more complete, William’s truth has to be considered as well. Harry has written that, after William hit him, William told Harry to hit him back, which he declined to do. But by writing about the fight, he’s done exactly that."
'Harry chose words that cut deep'
Explaining herself for exposing the secrets of her family, she said, "Years ago, someone asked me what I would say to my younger self if I could. Without hesitating I answered: ‘That’s easy. I’d have said, "Be quiet."’ Not forever. But until I could stand back and look at things through a wider lens. Until I understood that words have consequences, and they last a really long time. Harry has called William not only his ‘beloved brother’ but his ‘arch nemesis.’ He chose words that cut deep, that leave a scar; perhaps if he had taken time to be quiet, to reflect on the enduring power of his words, he’d have chosen differently. Silence gives you room, it gives you distance, and it lets you look at your experiences more completely, without the temptation to even the score. Sometime in the years ahead, Harry may look back as I did and wish he could unspeak what he has said. I’ve learned something else about truth: Not every truth has to be told to the entire world."
Who is Patti Davis?
Born on October 21, 1952, in Los Angeles, California, Davis is an actress, author, activist, and Alzheimer’s advocate, as per The Kensington White Plains. In 1984, she married her yoga instructor Paul Grilley, however, they got divorced after six years in 1990, states IMDb. She now publishes columns and articles in a number of newspapers and magazines.