Prince Harry has made an astonishing claim that his brother William attacked him during a heated argument over his wife Meghan Markle.
In an extraordinary excerpt from his upcoming autobiography Spare, Harry recalls what he describes as a physical attack by his sibling, which he claims left him with visible injuries, including scrapes and bruises.
The alleged row broke out at his London home in 2019, during which William, the now Prince of Wales, is said to have branded Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’, and ‘abrasive’.
Harry accused his brother of ‘parroting the press narrative’ about his wife before a screaming match ensued, ending in a physical altercation, the book claims.
The extract was published by the Guardian.
In one dramatic extract, Harry writes that William ‘grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and… knocked me to the floor’. The Duke of Sussex claims he was left with a visible injury to his back.
The brothers, according to Harry, had met to discuss ‘the whole rolling catastrophe’ of their relationship and struggles with the press.
But the heir to the throne arrived at Nottingham Cottage ‘piping hot’, Harry writes.
The Duke had been living in the home, known as Nott Cott and situated in the grounds of Kensington Palace, at the time of the alleged incident in 2019.
When they began arguing about Meghan, Harry claims William was not being rational, leading to a shouting match.
Harry said he told his brother he was unable to understand why he was not happy with being ‘the spare’, accusing his brother of acting like an heir. William told him he was trying to help him.
Harry said: ‘Are you serious? Help me? Sorry – is that what you call this? Helping me?’
It was that comment, according to Harry, which infuriated William, causing him to swear while stepping towards him.
Harry said he was scared and retreated to the kitchen as William followed.
He claims he gave William a glass of water and told him: ‘Willy, I can’t speak to you when you’re like this.’
He writes: ‘He set down the water, called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.
‘I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.’
It was then that William told his brother to hit him back, a reference to scraps they had as children, Harry writes.
The Duke said he refused to retaliate and that William left, before returning ‘looking regretful’ and apologising.
When the future king left for the final time, Harry claims he ‘turned and called back: ”You don’t need to tell Meg about this.”’
Harry says he responded with: ‘You mean that you attacked me?’
He says William added: ‘I didn’t attack you, Harold.’
According to Harry, he did not initially tell Meghan of the fight but phoned his therapist.
He writes that he informed Meghan of the altercation only when she noticed ‘scrapes and bruises’ on his back, adding that she ‘wasn’t that surprised, and wasn’t all that angry’, but that she was ‘terribly sad.’
The dramatic extract revealed just days before the book’s official release is likely to see a surge in sales.
It comes as the Royal Family are ‘completely exhausted’ with the ‘stream of misinformation’ from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, sources have claimed.
A royal insider told the Mirror: ‘It all feels very repetitive. Harry’s constant sniping is rather draining and he knows full well it is highly unlikely they will engage in a tit-for-tat battle of words.’
Prince Harry alleges that Prince William and Kate Middleton asked him to wear Nazi costume
Prince Harry has partly blamed his brother, Prince William and his sister-in-law Kate Middleton over the Nazi costume he wore which led to a scandal in 2005.
Harry was 20 when The Sun newspaper published a front-page photo of him dressed as a Nazi soldier with a red armband emblazoned with a big swastika. The picture was taken at a costume party with a “Native and Colonial” theme, where William was also a guest and was dressed in a homemade lion outfit.
The Duke of Sussex in his new memoir, said the Prince and Princess of Wales “howled with laughter” when they saw him dressed up for the 2005 party.
In one segment of the book obtained by Page Six, Harry writes about choosing the outfit, revealing that it was a toss-up between two costumes: a pilot uniform or a Nazi uniform.
“I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said,” Harry writes, adding that when he went home and tried it on for them. “They both howled. Worse than Willy’s leotard outfit! Way more ridiculous! Which, again, was the point.”
Royal Historian Robert Lacey had previously written that the first sign of trouble between the brothers came when Harry was forced to bear the brunt of public outrage over his Nazi costume, even though William helped choose the outfit.
“Harry chose his costume in conjunction with his elder brother; the future King William V, then 22, who had laughed all the way back to Highgrove (Charles’ country home) with the younger sibling he was supposed to be mentoring and then onwards to the party together,” Lacey wrote in his 2020 book “Battle of Brothers.”
He talked about how Harry began to feel alienated from his family following the incident, as the book said, “The young prince began re-evaluating his elder brother’s involvement and the unfairness of William’s subsequent emergence smelling of roses.”
The fallout sparked “no speaks” between the pair in the ensuing years, as Harry repeatedly resented being painted as the “comical fall guy” to his brother’s “glittering hero,” the book claimed.
So therefore it was not Harry’s wife who was the impetus for the issues with Harry and his family, Lacey wrote.
Asides from opening up on his strained relationship with his brother, sources have also revealed that there is also a “good chunk” about both Kate and his stepmother, Queen Consort Camilla Parker-Bowles.
