Prince Harry has revealed he would shop in TK Maxx for ‘everyday casual clothes’, despite getting an official clothing allowance from his dad.
The Duke of Sussex said he was ‘particularly fond’ of the discount store’s annual sale, where he could buy designer items at cheaper prices.
Writing in his autobiography Spare, Harry shared his ‘system’ for snagging bargains and optimising his time spent shopping.
‘Each year I received from Pa an official clothing allowance, but that was strictly for formal wear. Suits and ties, ceremonial outfits,’ he wrote.
‘For my everyday casual clothes I’d go to TK Maxx, the discount store.
‘I was particularly fond of their once-a-year sale, when they’d be flush with items from Gap or J Crew, items that had just gone out of season or were slightly damaged.’
Describing his shopping operation, he continued: ‘If you timed it just right, got there on the first day of the sale, you could snag the same clothes that others were paying top prices for down the high street!
‘With two hundred quid you could look like a fashion plate.’
Prince Harry's new book Spare released today
- The wackiest reveals from Prince Harry’s new book
- Almost nobody turned up to buy Prince Harry’s new book at midnight
- Which Royal Family member does Prince Harry mention most in Spare?
- Harry opens up about royals’ ‘horrible reaction’ on day of Queen’s death
Get all the latest updates on Metro.co.uk's dedicated Prince Harry page.
Harry added that he would aim to get to the shop 15 minutes before closing time and work his way ‘systematically’ down the racks.
He said he never ‘dawdled over colour or style’ and ‘certainly never went near a changing room’.
‘At closing time we would run out with two giant shopping bags, feeling triumphant,’ he wrote.
‘Now the papers wouldn’t call me a slob. At least for a little while.’
The wackiest reveals from 'Spare'
• The King still wants his favourite old teddy bear with him for comfort – after being bullied as a child. ‘Teddy went everywhere with Pa.,’ Harry reveals. It was a pitiful object, with broken arms and dangly threads, holes patched up here and there.’
• Harry’s todger was frostbitten at William and Kate’s wedding – after a charity trip to Antarctica before the big day. Harry reveals ‘While the ears and cheeks were already healing, the todger wasn’t. It was becoming more of an issue by the day.’ He applied Elizabeth Arden cream to his crown jewel.
• Harry reveals he was circumcised as a tot, saying ‘While it’s absolutely true that the chance of getting penile frostbite is much greater if you’re not circumcised . . . I was snipped as a baby.’
• Harry joked with the Queen about his bald patch just four days before she died. During their final phone call they discussed ‘turmoil at Number 10 and the severe UK drought. Harry joked that the grass was like his head – ‘balding and brown in patches.’ It made the queen laugh.
• Meghan was offered marmite crumpets when she first met Charles and Camilla for tea at Clarence House – and didn’t wear much make up because Charles ‘didn’t approve of women who wore a lot.’ Harry also asked Meghan to wear her hair loose, saying ‘Pa likes it when women wear their hair down.’
• Kate pulled a face when Meghan asked to borrow her lip gloss – in an ‘awkward moment’ in 2018. Harry claims that Meghan, having forgotten her lip gloss before the Waleses’ Royal Foundation Forum, asked Kate if she could borrow hers. Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and ‘reluctantly’ pulled out a small tube. ‘Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced.’
• When Harry first told William and Kate that he was dating Meghan Markle in 2017, ‘Willy’ told him to ‘f*** off!’ It turned out they were Suits Superfans. ‘I was baffled until Willy and Kate explained that they were regular—nay, religious—viewers of ‘Suits,’ Harry recalled. ‘ . . .All this time I’d thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family, but now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph.’
• When Meghan threw her arms around Prince William with a welcoming hug on their first meeting, it completely ‘freaked him out.’ Harry recalled ‘He recoiled. Willy didn’t hug many strangers. Whereas Meg hugged most strangers.’
• Charles and Camilla wanted Kate to change the spelling of her name to Katherine with a K – because they felt too many people in the family had the initial C.
• Stepmother Camilla changed Harry’s bedroom at Clarence House into her dressing room, shortly after he moved out.
• When 13-year-old Prince Harry met the Spice Girls on a trip to south Africa with his father, Baby Spice ‘fixated’ on his. ‘She kept pinching them,’ he recalls. But he identified with Ginger Spice – saying ‘A fellow ginger.’
• Harry recalled his father would exercise daily in his bedroom, often dressed only in boxer shorts, doing headstands or hanging from a bar ‘liked a skilled acrobat.’ The extreme extercises were prescribed by his physio to help ease pain in his back from old polo injuries.
• When Harry was born, his father wanted to call him Albert after Queen Victoria’s beloved husband – but Diana put her foot down and refused.
• Before leaving to serve in Afghanistan, Harry’s private secretary asked him to choose the spot where his remains would be interred ‘should the worse happen, Your Royal Highness. . . war being an uncertain thing.’ Harry had chosen the Royal Burial Ground.
• Prince Charles ‘was always sniffing things.’ Harry recalls ‘Food, roses, our hair. He must’ve been a bloodhound in another life.’
• As a prank at Eton, Harry allowed a pal to shave his hair. Horrified by the result, he ran upstairs to show his brother, Prince William – who laughed and asked what Harry had done. Harry recalls ‘He sounded like Stewie from Family Guy.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.