30 Best Royal Tell-All Books
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Why are we so obsessed with the British royal family? Maybe it’s a toxic ex thing — they are the ultimate One Who Got Away, colonially speaking — but I’m inclined to think it has more to do with what being a royal ultimately entails. When you’re a royal, your whole life is dictated by custom and tradition, from where you live to what you wear and who you marry. And anyone who watches enough reality TV knows that no one will go through life with those kinds of restrictions without serious drama. But those darn tight-lipped royals are intent on not letting the public see what goes on behind the mirage — and that’s exactly where our favorite royal tell-all books come in.
At the heart of what makes all royal bios so compelling is the sense of pulling back the curtain and really getting to know the people carrying out these same traditions year in and year out. Only the people themselves vary, each rebelling against and taking up their royal duties in unique ways — from King Charles III’s shocking dalliance with Queen Camilla to Prince Harry and Prince William’s long-rumored feud, and, of course, the bombshell to the firm that was Meghan Markle.
At royal appearances, it’s all smiles and curtsies. And no one but these royal biographers, royal reporters, and other insiders are quite so invested in telling the story of who the royal family is as a real family — brothers, in-laws, and a 75-year-old grandfather who’s just now living out his dreams. That’s what we want to know more about — and that’s exactly the kind of inside look these tell-all books give us.
Read on for all the best royal reads we’re loving right now.
A version of this article was originally published in October 2020.
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‘Catherine, the Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen’
Catherine, the Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen is the long-awaited biography all about Kate Middleton, from Robert Jobson. The author talks to many who worked at the royal household; and all detail how Kate become the woman she is now.
'Catherine, the Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen'
‘Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival’
Written by royal expert Omid Scobie, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival caused quite a stir in royal circles. In addition to revealing what went down between the royal family during Queen Elizabeth’s last few days, Scobie’s Dutch translation went on to reveal the two royal members who reportedly talked about Prince Archie’s skin color ahead of his birth. Talk about a must-read!
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‘Spare’
In Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir, titled Spare, the royal gave his perspective to all the highly-talked about and criticized moments in his life. From how he coped with the loss of his mother Princess Diana, to his father and brother’s reaction to him leaving the family, this book really shows Harry’s ready to open up about his past and start a new chapter.
“For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty,” the official synopsis reads. “A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”
'Spare'
‘The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown’
Journalist Katie Nicholl takes readers through Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, and how her legacy will inspire the rest of the British Royal Family. With new stories from courtiers and family members, The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown is a must for anyone wanting to know the inner workings of the Crown.
'The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth's Legacy and the Future of the Crown'
Price: $28.00 $14.65, originally $28.00
‘William & Kate: A Royal Love Story’
Just like with his parents roughly 30 years before, the world stopped and watched for just a few hours as Prince William married his wife, Kate Middleton back in 2011. Christopher Andersen’s tell-all goes deep into the shared life of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, how they kept their relationship as low-profile as possible, Prince William’s protective nature, and more. William & Kate: A Royal Love Story was published in June 2011, and resonates just as much a decade later.
William and Kate: A Royal Love Story
‘Kate: A Biography’
Kate: A Biography was published just after Kate Middleton gave birth to her and Prince William’s first son, Prince George. The biography by Marcia Moody takes a deep dive into how the Duchess of Cambridge captivated the United Kingdom and beyond, and how she and her husband have worked side-by-side to usher in a new chapter for the British monarchy.
Kate: A Biography
‘Harry & Meghan: Life, Loss, and Love’
Harry & Meghan: Life, Loss, and Love offers an engaging and intimate look at the life of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The Katie Nicholl tell-all features interviews with Prince Harry’s friends, family, and former Palace aides. Plus, Nicholl dives into the Duke of Sussex’s past girlfriends and his relationship and eventual engagement to Meghan Markle.
Harry and Meghan: Life, Loss, and Love
‘Finding Freedom’
Royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand tell Harry and Meghan’s side of the story and all that led up to their momentous exit from the royal family. This book is probably the closest you’ll get to actually hearing the Sussexes have their say and though they couldn’t officially be involved with the book, it’s known to have had their blessing.
'Finding Freedom'
‘Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown’
The daughter of the Earl of Leicester and a childhood friend of Princess Margaret’s, Anne Glenconner wrote Lady in Waiting as an extraordinarily personal memoir that gives an unflinching look at what the intimate relationship’s of Britain’s aristocracy really look like, and it’s far from pretty. A mix of English stoicism and colonial voyeurism makes Glenconner’s worldview equally hard to stomach and hard to resist.
‘Battle of Brothers: William and Harry – The Friendship and Feuds’
Battle of Brothers: William and Harry – The Friendship and Feuds is one of the first books to take on the Princes as adults, and how their concurrent careers as royals have intersected. Moreover, it addresses the years-long rumors of a feud between the brothers, promising itself as a definitive account of what really did — and what didn’t — add to the siblings’ conflict.
'Battle of Brothers'
‘Diana: Her True Story’
One of the most shocking royal tell-alls of all time, Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story – In Her Own Words shocked the royal family by laying bare the details of Diana’s unhappy marriage to Charles, relationship to the Queen, and daily struggles within the palace. Never before had a senior royal shared such intimate secrets — and Diana’s audio tapes backing up the statements made things all the harder to gloss over.
'Diana: Her True Story — In Her Own Words'
‘The Little Princesses’
If you’ve ever wanted to know what Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Princess Margaret were like growing up, this is the book for you. Marion Crawford was the governess to these two princesses in their youth, and while The Little Princess ultimately cost her her relationship with the royal family she maintains she had their blessing to write the account.
'The Little Princesses: The Story of the Queen's Childhood by Her Nanny'
‘Prince Philip Revealed’
Ingrid Seward’s latest bio takes on the oft-overlooked Prince Philip, whose tumultuous entrée into the British Royal Family was preceded by events even more intriguing: his childhood in Paris, his military service, and his ultimate romance with the Queen.
'Prince Philip Revealed'
‘Meghan: A Hollywood Princess’
Andrew Morton’s Meghan: A Hollywood Princess takes a closer look at Meghan Markle than most royal bios, tracing back her childhood in California, her first marriage, the complicated early days of her romance with Prince Harry, and why her joining the royal family caused such a massive stir. It feeds into many Meghan myths we don’t necessarily agree with, but it also provides more detail on her origins than almost any other text.
'Meghan: A Hollywood Princess'
‘The Royals’
Kitty Kelley isn’t known for taking a gentle approach to any bios, and the royal family is no exception. In The Royals, you hear all the dirty details that make you wonder how she dared to publish as she takes a look inside the lives of the Queen, Prince Charles, Princess Diana, and more.
'The Royals'
‘Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch’
Sally Bedell Smith is a renowned royal biographer (and official consultant on The Crown) and her deep dive into the life of Queen Elizabeth II was no exception to her insightful work. Elizabeth the Queen strives to reconcile the Queen’s stony outer persona with a personal life touched in equal parts by turmoil and warmth. How has the Queen remained stoic so long? And why can’t her softer side show through?
'Elizabeth The Queen'
‘Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life’
Another Sally Bedell Smith classic, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life tells the story of the original rebel Prince Charles — his lonely childhood, his marriage to Diana, and of course his whirlwind affair with Camilla. Who is this man behind a thousand headlines? And what does his life look like now?
'Prince Charles'
‘Philip and Elizabeth’
Even Her Majesty has her own love story, and Gyles Brandreth describes Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s romance in sweeping detail in Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage.
'Philip & Elizabeth'
‘The Diana Chronicles’
Former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown takes on the famous Princess of Wales in biography The Diana Chronicles, tracing her life from childhood to royalty to her untimely end. It speaks to Diana’s character, but it also speaks to her enduring legacy, and what happened to those she left behind.
'The Diana Chronicles'
‘Meghan and Harry: The Real Story’
Best-selling author of Diana in Private, Lady Colin Campbell takes on the Sussexes in Meghan and Harry: The Real Story, tracing through a series of interviews and analyses how Meghan’s cultural influence and uniquely powerful position may have freed Harry to ask for the kind of rules he’d wanted all along — and how the royal family could never really be what they wanted from it.
'Meghan and Harry: The Real Story'
‘Game of Crowns: Elizabeth, Camilla, Kate, and the Throne’
You may never have realized just how much Queen Elizabeth II, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Kate Middleton have in common — but as Christopher Andersen makes clear in Game of Crowns, these women have been fighting concurrent batttles against royal expectations and personal scandals for years. A must-read for anyone curious about the role of wives in the BRF.
'Game of Crowns'
‘On Duty With The Queen’
Royal spokesperson Dickie Arbiter tells a story that only he could in On Duty With the Queen, an account of his time representing the royal family in the ’80s and ’90s, including the time of Princess Diana’s death. He gives a detailed account of day-to-day life at Buckingham Palace, how he came to acquire this position, and what royal communication with the media really looks like.
'On Duty With The Queen'
‘Kate: The Future Queen’
Royal reporter Katie Nicholl wrote the first definitive text on future queen Kate Middleton with this bio including everything you could ever want to know about her teen years, first loves, complicated romance with Prince William, and all the way up to becoming royalty and her first royal pregnancy. The 2011 Kate: The Future Queen will keep diehard K-Mid fans glued to the page.
'Kate: The Future Queen'
‘William & Harry: A Portrait of Two Princes’
Before they were the heads of the Cambridge and Sussex names, Prince Harry and Prince William were just boys — and that’s the story Ingrid Seward tells in William & Harry. The intimate bio of their younger years details how they got through their parents’ public split, their mother’s tragic passing, and their first steps into their royal duties.
'William & Harry'
‘Royals at War’
Before there was Finding Freedom, there was Royals at War, Dylan Howard and Andy Tillett’s exposé on why Harry and Meghan had decided to step back from the royal family, interviewing aides, friends, and commentators and tracing back Harry’s first signs of fissure with the firm from meeting Meghan all the way back to Diana’s death. While this has less direct commentary from the palace than other picks, it paints a vivid picture of how the media landscape understood Megxit at the time it happened.
'Royals at War'
‘Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King’
This 2012 Prince William biography by Penny Junor aims to pinpoint how he came to be the man he is today, tracing his teen years in the spotlight to first meeting Kate and rising up as a senior royal, and how his personality lent himself to his duties along the way. Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King both recounts his history and speculates on his future rule.
'Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King'
‘The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor’
The Firm takes on the royal family as a whole, boldly questioning their place and purpose in modern culture and delineating where exactly the House of Windsor may have lost its way. First published in the wake of Prince Charles’ highly controversial marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, Junor funnily enough questioned whether William might not leave the firm in years to come, cracking under the pressure of carrying on the scandal-ridden line. Updated over the years, this book shows how much things change — and how much they stay the same.
'The Firm'
‘Kensington Palace’
Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir From Queen Mary to Meghan Markle focuses in on that one hub of royal activity, which has over the years housed Queen Caroline, Princess Diana, Prince Charles’ mistresses, Meghan Markle, and so many more. If these walls could talk, we think their story would sound a lot like this book by Tom Quinn.
'Kensington Palace'
‘Ma’am Darling: Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret’
Craig Brown’s deep dive into the myths and mysteries of Princess Margaret included getting all perspectives, in the form of essays, satires, Hollywood anecdotes, and musings on the tragedies and excesses of her life. It’s a book that emulates her in style as much as content, aiming to evoke the same mesmerizing, wan thrill of the aristocracy’s last gasp that Margaret herself evoked in her peers. Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret also happens to be impossible to put down.
'Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret'
‘Prince Harry: Brother, Soldier, Son’
Reasons to buy this book (beyond the crazy handsome pic of Harry on the cover) include: an in-depth look at Harry’s wild teenage years, new details on his military service in Afghanistan, and the origin story of his involvement in pet charity project Sentebale in Lesotho, a project his mother Diana started. In other words, you can think of Prince Harry as the story of how Harry became the man Meghan Markle would one day meet and marry.
'Prince Harry: Brother Soldier Son'
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