Prince Harry has revealed he ‘wanted to be someone new’ as he adopted new persona away from the Royal Family.

The Duke of Sussex has opened up about struggling with his identity growing up in the world’s most famous family. Prince Harry quit as a senior member of the royal family in 2020, but his struggles with who he was begun somewhat earlier.

He spoke about when he acquired a new identity while on a gap year in Australia in 2003 working as a jackaroo (also known as a cowboy) at Tooloombilla Station. Prince Harry spoke about just how he got the nickname ‘Spike’ in his book Spare.

He said his shock of ginger hair ‘never recovered’ from when he allowed his Eton mates to shave his head back at school – and it began growing back in strands that ‘shot up like summer grass.’ It was then his new identity came about.

Harry even changed his accent to go with it. He recalled how even his ‘Pa’ relished his new moniker as well as his security who got t-shirts made with his new nickname on it reading ‘Spike 2003.’

The dad-of-two said in his book Spare: “Soon enough my mates at home got wind of this new nickname, and adopted it. I became Spike, when I wasn’t Haz, or Baz, or Prince Jackaroo, or Harold, or Darling Boy, or Scrawny, a nickname given me by some Palace staff. Identity had always been problematic, but with a half dozen formal names and a full dozen nicknames it was turning into a hall of mirrors.”

Prince Harry shared his heartbreak at his identity issues with his readers. He said: “Most days I didn’t care what people called me. Most days I thought: Don’t care who I am, so long as it’s someone new, someone other than Prince Harry.”

Meanwhile Prince Harry has spoken out about the desertion by some of his oldest friends after he was chastised for his explosive Oprah Winfrey interview. The author spoke out about how his nearest and dearest berated him for opening up to the US chat show queen about the Royal Family.