Prince Harry claims in his forthcoming memoir that his brother, Prince William, physically attacked him in 2019 after insulting his wife, the former Meghan Markle.
According to a bombshell report from the Guardian published this week, William allegedly called the Duchess of Sussex “difficult,” “rude” and “abrasive” before shoving Harry to the ground and injuring his younger brother’s back. The Guardian obtained an excerpt from the Duke of Sussex’s highly anticipated memoir, “Spare,” which comes out Tuesday.
William could not be reached for comment.
In the “Spare” passage published Wednesday, Harry recalls getting into an argument with the now-Prince of Wales at his London home in 2019. After a “piping hot” William allegedly confronted Harry about “the whole rolling catastrophe” of their deteriorating sibling relationship and complained about Meghan, the Duke of Sussex accused his older brother of parroting the press and told him he expected better, according to Harry’s book.
At one point, the siblings began shouting and hurling insults at each other, Harry writes. William allegedly insisted he was trying to help Harry, who writes that he replied, “Are you serious? Help me? Sorry — is that what you call this?”
William then swore and started toward his brother in a fit of rage, claims Harry, who fearfully retreated to the kitchen as William followed. While handing his brother a glass of water, Harry allegedly said, “Willy, I can’t speak to you when you’re like this.”
“He set down the water, called me another name, then came at me,” Harry writes in the excerpt obtained by the Guardian. “It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.”
When he landed, Harry continues, a dog bowl shattered underneath him and cut into his back.
“I lay there for a moment, dazed,” Harry writes, “then got to my feet and told him to get out.”
The Prince of Wales allegedly demanded Harry fight back, but Harry says he refused, and William eventually left. William allegedly returned later, “looking regretful,” and apologized before telling his brother, “You don’t need to tell Meg about this.”
But the argument inevitably came up after Meghan discovered “scrapes and bruises” on her husband’s back, Harry writes. When Harry explained what happened, Meghan wasn’t “surprised” or “angry” — just “terribly sad,” according to the memoir.
The Harry-William brawl is one of several snippets from “Spare” that have made headlines in the weeks leading up to its release.
On Thursday, People published a different excerpt from the book in which Harry recounts driving at high speed through the Paris tunnel where his mother, Princess Diana, died in 1997. According to a Wednesday report from Page Six, Harry also claims in the memoir that William and his wife, Kate, encouraged him to wear a Nazi uniform to a costume party that landed him in hot water in 2005.
In the book, Harry also admits using cocaine when he was 17 and says he killed 25 people when he was serving as a helicopter pilot fighting in Afghanistan, according to Sky News.
Last month, it was rumored that Harry discusses in “Spare” losing his virginity to an “older woman.” Many pointed fingers at Elizabeth Hurley, despite the British actor and model having no romantic history whatsoever with the Duke of Sussex.
In a mid-December interview with the Sunday Times, Hurley denied the rumors, saying, “No. Not me. Absolutely not.”
Scheduled to air this weekend is an ITV interview with Harry in which he laments his family painting him and Meghan as “villains” and expresses a desire to repair his strained relationships with the men in his life.
“I would like to get my father back,” Harry says in a preview clip from the ITV special. “I would like to have my brother back.”
