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Sister in law. Prince Harry’s Spare stories about Kate Middleton reveal that he had more than just drama with his brother and father.
Spare, which was published on January 10, 2023, is the Duke of Sussex’s first memoir. The title is based on the phrase “the heir and the spare,” terms often used to describe the first and second born children of a royal monarch. Harry wrote in Spare that his father, King Charles III, first used the word to describe him in a conversation with his mother, Princess Diana, after he was born. “‘Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare – my work is done,’” Harry quoted Charles.
Royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti told Us Weekly in January 2023 that Spare could cause “permanent” damage Harry’s relationship with other members of the British royal family. “I think that they have two different agendas, and that’s why sometimes the royal family probably is willing to ride out a storm if it’s not too irrevocably damaging or permanently damaging because they know that in the longer war, even if they lost the odd battle, they’re going to come out on top,” he said. “And I suspect that will be their guiding principle when they’re deciding how to react. But of course, they will have to react here and there, even if not directly to some of the things that are being said.”
So what did Prince Harry write about Kate Middleton in Spare? Read on for Prince Harry’s Spare claims about Kate Middleton ahead.
Courtesy of: Random House
Read Prince Harry’s Spare stories about Kate Middleton ahead and what he said about his sister-in-law in his new book.
Prince Harry’s first impression of Kate Middleton
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Prince Harry revealed his first impression of Kate Middleton in Spare. He explained that he and Kate first met while she was dating his brother, Prince William, and described her as “carefree, sweet, kind.” He also wrote that he admired her interest in photography, travel and art. He also wrote that he “liked making Kate laugh.”
Prince Harry claims Prince William and Kate Middleton told him to wear his Nazi costume
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Prince Harry claimed that Prince William and Kate Middleton told him to wear his infamous Nazi costume to a 2005 “Native and Colonial” theme party, which they also attended. “I went up and down the rows, sifting through the racks, seeing nothing I liked. With time running out I narrowed my options to two. A British pilot’s uniform. And a sand-colored Nazi uniform. With a swastika armband. And a flat cap,” he wrote. “I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said. I rented it, plus a silly mustache, and went back to the house. I tried it all on. They both howled.”
Harry described William’s costume as “some kind of feline outfit” that consisted of a “skintight leotard” and a “springy, bouncy tail.” He claimed that William and Kate told him that his Nazi costume was “worse than Willy’s leotard outfit” and way more ridiculous!” but that that was “the point” of the party.
Prince Harry accuses Kate Middleton of “reluctantly” lending Meghan Markle her lip gloss
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Prince Harry accused Kate Middleton of “reluctantly” lending Meghan Markle her lip gloss at their Royal Foundation Forum appearance in 2018, which Harry and William also attended. The moment, which Harry called an “American thing,” happened when Meghan asked Kate to borrow her lip gloss after she forgot hers. “Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and reluctantly pulled out a small tube,” Harry wrote. “Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced.”
Harry wrote that he, William, Kate and Meghan “should’ve been able to laugh about” the moment, but the press sensed the “awkward moment” was a part of “something bigger.” In Spare, Harry also wrote that it had “long been his dream” before he met Meghan to “become a foursome” with William and Kate and join his brother and sister-in-law with an “equal partner” of his own. “I also said I couldn’t wait for them to meet her, that I looked forward to the four of us spending lots of time together,” Harry wrote.
Prince Harry worried he would lose Prince William to Kate Middleton
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Prince Harry worried he would lose his brother, Prince William, to Kate Middleton after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge married in April 2011. Though he was happy for the couple, he wrote in Spare that he felt like the wedding was “yet another farewell” to a family member after he lost his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. “The brother I’d escorted into Westminster Abbey that morning was gone — forever. Who could deny it?” he wrote. “He’d never again be first a foremost Willy. We’d never again ride together across the Lesotho countryside with capes blowing behind us. We’d never again share a horsey-smelling cottage while learning to fly. Who shall separate us? Life, that’s who.”
Though Harry confessed that the “ceremony is mostly blank in [his] mind,” he wrote that he remembered Kate looking “I loved my new sister-in-law,” he wrote. “I felt she was more sister than in-law, the sister I’d never had and always wanted, and I was pleased that she’d forever be standing by Willy’s side. She was a good match for my older brother. They made each other visibly happy, and therefore I was happy too.”
Prince Harry claims Prince William and Kate Middleton were super fans of Meghan Markle’s show Suits
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Prince Harry claimed that Prince William and Kate Middleton were super fans of Meghan Markle’s TV show, Suits, which she filmed from seven seasons from 2011 to 2018 until Meghan left the show after news broke of her relationship with Harry. When he and Meghan started dating in 2016, Harry wrote that William and Kate could tell “something was going on” when they invited him over for dinner one night. “I casually mentioned that there was … a new woman in my life. They surged forward. ‘Who is she?’” he wrote, adding that he made William and Kate promise “to keep it a secret” before giving more details. “She’s an actress. ‘Oh?’ She’s American. ‘Oh.’ On a show called Suits. Their mouths fell open. They turned to each other. Then Willy turned to me and said: ‘Fuck off?’”
Harry wrote that he was “baffled” by William’s response “until Willy and Kate explained that they were regular — nay, religious — viewers” of Suits. “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,” he said, recalling that the couple then “barraged” him with questions about Meghan.
Prince Harry claims Kate Middleton was “on edge” from comparisons to Meghan Markle
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Prince Harry claimed Kate Middleton was “on edge” from comparisons to Meghan Markle after he got engaged. He wrote that the two first became the subject of “controversy” around the time that Meghan showed support for #MeToo at their 2018 Royal Foundation Forum appearance with Prince William. “Something about Meg showing support for #MeToo, and Kate not showing support — via their outfits? I think that was the gist, though who can say? It wasn’t real,” he wrote. He continued, “I think it had Kate on edge while putting her and everyone else on notice that she was now going to be compared to, and forced to compete with, Meg.”
Prince Harry confirms Kate Middleton made Meghan Markle cry over Charlotte’s flower girl dress
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Prince Harry confirmed Kate Middleton made Meghan Markle cry over Princess Charlotte’s flower girl dress at their wedding in 2018. Harry wrote in Spare that Kate texted Meghan a week before their wedding about a “problem” over Charlotte’s dress. He wrote that the “Frech haute coutoure dresses” were “hand-sewn based solely on [the bridesmaids’] measurements” so he understood there would be adjustments. (The dresses were designed by Givenchy’s former creative director Clare Waight Keller who also designed Meghan’s wedding dress.)
Meghan texted Kate to bring Charlotte to Kensington Palace, where a tailor was waiting to do alterations for all six of the bridesmaids. Harry wrote that the response was “not sufficient” for Kate, however, who asked Meghan to talk. During their conversation, Kate told Meghan that Charlotte’s dress was “too big, long and baggy” and that her daughter “burst into tears when she tried it on.” Meghan recommended that Kate bring Charlotte to the tailor for alterations, but Harry claimed that Kate told her that all of the bridesmaids dresses needed to be remade with four days left before the wedding. Harry also claimed that Kate told Meghan that her own wedding dress designer, Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton, agreed that the bridesmaids dresses needed to be redone.
The conversation came around the time of Meghan’s fallout with her father, Thomas Markle, who was caught staging paparazzi photos and did not attend the wedding. “Meg asked if Kate was aware of what was going on right now. With her father,” Harry said. “Kate said she was well aware, but the dresses. ‘And the wedding is in four days!’” Though he wrote that he didn’t think Kate meant any “harm” with the conversation, Harry confirmed that the “back and forth” between Meghan and his sister-in-law caused his wife to cry. “A short time later I arrived home and found Meg on the floor. Sobbing,” Harry wrote. “I was horrified to see [Meghan] so upset, but I didn’t think it was a catastrophe. … Indeed the next morning Kate came by with flowers and a card that said she was sorry.”
Along with Charlotte’s bridesmaid’s dress, Harry wrote that Kate “had other problems with the way Meg was planning her wedding. Something about a party for the page boys? The page boys? Half the kids in the wedding are from North America. They haven’t even arrived yet.” He continued, “It was intolerable — but temporary.” In the end, Harry, who wrote that “emotions were running high” for his whole family in the days before the wedding, accepted Kate’s apology and chalked up the situation to a “simple misunderstanding.”
Prince Harry claims Prince William and Kate Middleton shouted at him and Meghan Markle for not sending Easter gifts
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Prince Harry claimed Prince William and Kate Middleton shouted at him and Meghan Markle for not sending Easter gifts. Harry wrote that, a month after their wedding in 2018, William and Kate invited him and Meghan over for tea to “clear the air” over any drama. The conversation started with “classic small talk” but ended with “shouting.” Harry wrote that William and Kate “were apparently upset” that they didn’t receive Easter gifts from him or Meghan, which Harry claimed was “never” a tradition for the royal family. “For our part, we chipped in that we weren’t too pleased when Willy and Kate switched place cards and changed seats at our wedding,” he wrote. “We’d followed the American tradition, placing couples next to each other, but Willy and Kate didn’t like that tradition, so their table was the only one where spouses were apart. They insisted it wasn’t them, it was someone else. And they said we’d done the same thing at Pippa [Middleton]’s wedding. We hadn’t. Much as we’d wanted to.”
Prince Harry reveals how he told Prince William and Kate Middleton about Meghan Markle’s pregnancy
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Prince Harry revealed he told Prince William and Kate Middleton about Meghan Markle’s pregnancy while at St. George’s Hall for Princess Eugenie’s wedding in fall 2018. “Willy smiled and said we must tell Kate. She was across the room … but he insisted,” wrote Harry, who had just learned that he and Meghan were expecting their first child, son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. “So we went and told Kate and she also gave a big smile and a hearty congratulations. They both reacted exactly as I’d hoped — as I’d wished.
Prince Harry claims Kate Middleton was offended by a joke Meghan Markle made about her “pregnancy brain”
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Prince Harry claimed Kate Middleton was offended by a joke Meghan Markle made about her “pregnancy brain” while his sister-in-law was pregnant with her third child, son Prince Louis, in 2018. Harry wrote that the comment came after Kate and Meghan’s drama over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid’s dress for their wedding in May 2018 when Meghan joked that Kate “must have baby brain because of her hormones” because she couldn’t remember something. Harry wrote, “There was a discussion about the timing of the wedding rehearsal and the flower girl dresses and Kate was very upset.”
A month after the wedding, Prince William and Kate invited Harry and Meghan to their house for a tea to sort out their drama. During the conversation, Kate shouted at Meghan, “You talked about my hormones. We are not close enough for you to talk about my hormones!” Harry recalled how “offended” Kate was and how his sister-in-law gripped her chair so tight that her fingers turned white. Harry wrote that Meghan was confused by Kate’s reaction because the joke was how she talked with her friends. Harry also wrote that William pointed at Meghan and told her that her “rude” comment wasn’t appropriate in the United Kingdom, to which Meghan told William to “take your finger out of my face.”
Meghan was confused by Kate’s reaction, because the remark was how she talked with her friends, Harry wrote in his book. At one point, William allegedly pointed at Meghan, telling her that her “rude” comment was not appropriate in Britain, Harry recalled. Meghan allegedly told William to “take your finger out of my face.”
Courtesy of: Random House
For more about Prince Harry, read his upcoming memoir, Spare. Told for the first time in his own words, the book takes readers through the Duke of Sussex’s life with the British royal family, from the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 to how the moment led to his decision decades later to move to America with his wife, Meghan Markle, and leave Buckingham Palace for good in 2020. “With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief,” the publisher’s description reads.
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