Robin Abcarian: Privileged, tormented and, finally, liberated: Prince Harry unshackles himself from the royal family

As if being considered a "spare" child isn't insulting enough, here are some other ways Prince Harry describes his family's view of him in his new memoir: "The shadow." "The support." "A nullity."

He saves his venom, though, for the insatiable paparazzi who have made his entire life a hellish game of cat and mouse: They are, he writes, "like ants," "wild dogs," "a pack of monsters," "grotesque people," "clinically diagnosable sadists."

Given the tension between his subordinate status in the Windsor hierarchy, the family's emotional , and the unhealthy symbiotic relationship between royals and media (which contributed to the tragic death of his, when he was 12), it almost seems inevitable that Harry would make an existential break for it, especially after the hideous way the U.K. press treated the former Meghan Markle, the biracial American actress he'd brought into the family fold. ("Harry's girl," "is (almost) straight outta Compton.")