Prince Harry Explicit 'Spare' Audiobook 'Deepfake' Becomes Viral Trend

An edited viral clip appearing to come from the audiobook version of Prince Harry's hit memoir Spare is being widely shared on social media with a number of users creating reaction videos and content based on it.

The prince published print and digital versions of his tell-all memoir on January 10, including a 15-hour-long audiobook recorded in his own voice.

The royal's first literary venture has broken records to become the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time. He undertook a number of high-profile media appearances to publicize it.

While Harry has received a large amount of online praise for the book by fans and commentators, he has received an equal amount of backlash which has led to his popularity dropping to its lowest level ever in the U.S. and U.K.

While some commentators have shared their thoughts that the prince's revealing private conversations and behind-palace-walls gossip was in poor taste, others have pointed out the humorous aspects of more light-hearted passages from the book.

In one such section, the prince describes experiencing a frostbitten penis after a trek to the North Pole in 2011. An unedited version of this section from the audiobook was quickly uploaded by amused fans to the video-sharing app TikTok where many creators came up with viral dances to the clip.

Since the book's wide release, there have been numerous video trends on social media with clips, excerpts, and reactions being shared. One video that is creating a particular buzz with nearly a million views is a "deepfake" audio extract that appears to show the prince using graphic and explicit language.

Merriam-Webster defines the word "deepfake" as "an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said."

Uploaded by the TikTok creator syntheticvoices, the 19-second-long video has received in excess of 49,000 likes and 1,000 comments.

Opening with a barrage of f-words, listeners of the fake book extract hear a voice matching Harry's recite: "I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the navy seals and I've been involved in numerous raids on Al Qaeda and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in guerrilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire U.S. armed forces."

This is not a genuine extract either from Spare's audiobook or print and digital versions. Prince Harry has never served in the U.S. military, nor did he claim to have engaged in guerrilla warfare or have "300 confirmed kills."

A number of commenters have praised the clip for its humorous content, but also for the advancement in technology that it demonstrates.

"This is just showing what technology can do, but it's hilarious 😂😂😂," wrote one user.

"Hahaha this is brilliant. AI voice getting insanely good," said another.

So far, the video's audio has been used in over 450 other TikTok posts with creators developing dances, skits, and reactions that have been widely shared.

User aymansbooks posted her own humorous reaction video to her 900,000 followers, where it has been viewed over 1.3 million times and received over 200,000 likes.

Musician Taylor Roche also uploaded his personal riff on the viral sound, presenting a sped-up dramatic reading of the audio to his 80,000 followers, with the video being viewed by over 230,000 users.

Roche captioned his video: "Prince Harry is a baddie," with an additional line of commentary reading: "WHO HURT THIS MAN-💀"

Newsweek approached representatives of Prince Harry for comment.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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