Security around Prince Harry’s book rivals ‘Harry Potter’ releases

The publishers of Prince Harry’s hotly anticipated tell-all memoir, “Spare,” are said to be sparing no expense to thwart leaks ahead of next week’s global release — drawing comparisons to the multimillion-dollar security operation that surrounded JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter” book series.

“Spare,” published by Penguin Random House, is scheduled to be unleashed on the world as an e-edition at midnight Jan. 10, with hardcover copies hitting store shelves just hours later.

The Times reported, citing anonymous publishing sources, that hot-off-the-presses copies of “Spare” were expected to be delivered to bookstores at the last minute to avoid spoilers.

For comparison, the publishers of Rowling’s “Potter” juggernaut reportedly spent millions of dollars to keep plot twists a secret ahead of publication, with each of the seven releases requiring ever more drastic security measures, including containers rigged with alarms, guards and delivery trucks equipped with satellite tracking systems.

The hit book series went on to become an all-time fantasy bestseller, spawning a successful movie franchise, a Broadway show and even its own theme park.   

“Spare” will be simultaneously published in 16 languages, and it is widely expected to contain a barrage of explosive allegations against Prince Harry’s family.

The title of the 38-year-old royal’s autobiography refers to his label as a “spare” prince to the heir, his older brother, Prince William.

According to Penguin Random House, the 416-page tome promises to be “full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”

A source with knowledge of the book told the Sunday Times that the already deeply fraught relationship between William and Harry may never recover in the wake of the book’s publication, and that any reconciliation between the two will be highly unlikely.

“I think the book [will be] worse for them than the royal family is expecting,” the source told the paper. “Everything is laid bare. [King] Charles comes out of it better than I had expected, but it’s tough on William, in particular, and even Kate gets a bit of a broadside.”

According to the source, Harry’s tell-all also contains a detailed description of a fight between the two brothers.

Tom Bower, author of “Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors,” previously described Harry’s memoir as a “time bomb.”

The book comes fresh on the heels of last month’s premiere of the docuseries “Harry & Meghan” on Netflix, which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex used as a platform to air some of their many grievances against the royal family and its treatment of Meghan Markle.    

In a bid to drum up interest in his memoir, Harry has given two interviews, to ITV News in the UK and CBS’ “60 Minutes” in the US, which will air Sunday.

In a trailer promoting the ITV sit-down with host Tom Bradby, Harry complained about wanting to get “back” to his father, King Charles III, and his older brother, whom he painted as a screaming bully in the Netflix show.

“I want a family, not an institution,” he said in the clip released this week.

But according to the estranged royal, his family has “shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile.”

“They feel as though it is better to keep us somehow as the villains,” Harry added.

In a preview promoting the “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper, Harry accused the royal family of leaking negative stories to the press about himself and wife Meghan.

“Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately, there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife,” the royal moaned to Cooper.