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More than sibling rivalry. Prince Harry’s Spare stories about Prince William explain why he’s seen his older brother as his “archnemesis” since they were children.
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 Prince William in Spare? Read on for Prince Harry’s Spare claims about Prince William ahead.
Courtesy of: Random House
Read Prince Harry’s Spare stories about Prince William ahead and what he said about his brother in his new book.
Prince Harry claims Prince William physically attacked him over a fight about Meghan Markle
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Prince Harry claimed Prince William physically attacked him over a fight about Meghan Markle. Harry wrote that the altercation occurred at his home at Nottingham Cottage in London in 2019 when William called Meghan “difficult,” “rude” and “abrasive,” which Harry believed was him “parrot[ing] off the press narrative” about his wife. When the confrontation escalated, Harry wrote that William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor,” which resulted in a visible injury to his back.
“It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor,” Harry wrote. “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.” The fight came after he asked William to talk about the “rolling catastrophe” of their relationship, which led to William becoming “piping hot” with anger.
Prince Harry claims Prince William warned him not to propose to Meghan Markle
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Prince Harry claimed that Prince William warned him not to propose to Meghan Markle because their relationship was moving “too fast.” Harry wrote that William shot down the idea that Harry and Meghan would “become a foursome” with him and Kate because Meghan was “an American actress after all.” The moment came after Harry told William that he felt like their late mother, Princess Diana, helped him “find” Meghan. After he said that, Harry wrote that William looked “concerned” and “took a step back” before telling his younger brother that he was “taking things a bit too far.”
Harry also wrote that William told him he and Meghan couldn’t have their wedding at the same venue William and Kate married at. “We wanted to get married quickly. But the Palace couldn’t seem to pick a date. Or a venue,” he wrote. “While waiting for a decree from on high, from the nebulous upper regions of the royal decision-making apparatus, we went off on a traditional ‘engagement tour.’” He continued, “On our return from the trip I rang Willy, sounded him out, asked his thoughts about where we might get married. I told him we were thinking of Westminster Abbey. ‘No good. We did it there.’ ‘Right, right. St. Paul’s?’ ‘Too grand. Plus Pa and Mummy did it there.’ ‘Hm. Yes Good point.’”
Harry wrote that William reminded him that he wanted a “small, quiet wedding” with Meghan. “In fact we wanted to explore. Barefoot in Botswana, with maybe a friend officiating, that was our dream,” Harry wrote. “But we were expected to share this moment with other people. It wasn’t up to us.”
Prince Harry claims that he and Prince William asked King Charles not to marry Camilla
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Prince Harry claimed that he and Prince William asked their father, King Charles III, not to marry his now-wife, Queen Consort Camilla, before their wedding in 2005. Harry wrote that he worried if Camilla would be a “wicked stepmother” after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. “I remember wondering…if she would be cruel to me; if she would be like all the wicked stepmothers in the stories,” Harry wrote, calling Camilla the “other woman.” He wrote that he and William “begged” Charles not to marry Camilla and that the first time meeting her felt like an “injection.”
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 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 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 Meghan Markle told Prince William to “take your finger out of my face” after he called her “rude”
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Prince Harry claimed Meghan Markle told Prince William to “take your finger out of my face” after he called her rude. The fight was over a joke Meghan made about Kate Middleton’s “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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