A visit to the UK for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee reportedly cast a cloud of doubt over Prince Harry publishing his book Spare.
The Duke of Sussex's "second thoughts" reportedly came after he was told by the royal family that there would be "no way back" if the memoir was published while his grandmother Queen Elizabeth was still alive.
Book publisher Penguin Random House was reportedly told Prince Harry had "pulled it" and "he doesn't want to do it" after he and Megan Markle visited the UK in June last year.
A source told UK newspaper The Times Spare was "ready to go" but the Prince had "second thoughts" after he saw Queen Elizabeth.
It was reportedly a "dark day" for the team that worked on the book in "utmost secrecy" after word came it could get canned leaving them "devastated".
The publishers believed Spare would be "one of the biggest and most historic books" they would publish, the Daily Mail reported.
While there was no official reason as to why the Prince wanted to pull the book, it was rumoured he was given an "ultimatum" while his grandmother was still alive, which later changed when the Queen died in September.
Spare, which was officially due to hit shelves next week, goes into detail about an ugly confrontation between Prince Harry and his brother William which saw them come to blows, according to The Guardian.
The conflict is said to have happened at Prince Harry's London home at an unnamed time during 2019 and saw William calling Meghan "difficult", "rude" and "abrasive", which Harry said was a "parrot[ing of] the press narrative" about his US wife.
Prince Harry then wrote William "grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and... knocked me to the floor".
The incident resulted in a "visible injury to his back", Prince Harry claimed.
Spare officially releases globally on January 10.
