Key points from the Duke of Sussex’s tell-all autobiography
Some of the most startling claims from Harry’s memoir, Spare, so far.
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Your support makes all the difference.With excerpts from the Duke of Sussex’s tell-all book leaked ahead of its publication, here are the claims and revelations so far.
– Harry claims William, now the Prince of Wales, physically attacked him
Harry writes: “(William) 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.”
– William called Meghan ‘difficult’ and ‘rude’
The Guardian revealed the alleged incident took place at Harry’s then home in Nottingham Cottage and that William called the Duchess of Sussex “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”.
Harry told him he was parroting the press narrative about his wife.
– The brothers had physical fights when younger
Harry said William urged him to hit back, citing fights they had as children, but Harry refused and William left before returning, looking regretful and apologising.
– Charles pleaded with William and Harry to stop fighting, at Windsor, after the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral
In a tense meeting after Philip’s funeral, a grieving Charles, now King, told his sons: “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.”
– Harry claims William and Kate encouraged him to wear the Nazi uniform
Harry sparked outrage in 2005 when he wore a Nazi uniform complete with swastika armband to a fancy dress party.
But according to US website Page Six, he claims he phoned William and Kate to ask them whether he should chose a pilot’s uniform or a Nazi one for the fancy dress party, and William and Kate said the latter, and both howled with laughter when he went home and tried it on for them.
– Meghan upset Kate over ‘baby brain’ comment
Harry claims that Meghan upset Kate, who had recently given birth, by telling her that she must have “baby brain”, during a phone call in the run up to the Sussexes’ wedding in 2018, according to the Sun.
Harry alleges that Meghan apologised but William “pointed a finger” at her, saying: “Well, it’s rude, Meghan. These things are not done here,” to which she responded: “If you don’t mind, keep your finger out of my face.”
– Harry and William ‘begged’ Charles not to marry Camilla
Harry claims that he and William told Charles they would welcome the now-Queen Consort into the family on the condition he did not marry her, and “begged” him not to do so.
The Duke alleges that his father did not respond to their pleas.
– Harry killed 25 people while serving as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan
The Telegraph, which obtained a Spanish language copy of the memoir from a bookshop in Spain, reported Harry said flying six missions during his second tour of duty on the front line resulted in “the taking of human lives” of which he was neither proud nor ashamed.
– Harry reveals his use of cocaine
Harry said he had “taken cocaine” during a shooting weekend by the summer of 2002, when he was 17, and did “a few more lines” on other occasions, according to the Times.
He wrote that it was not “fun and it did not make me feel as happy as it seemed to make others but it did make me feel different and that was my main goal. To feel. To be different”.
– Harry asked a driver to replicate the journey Diana took in Paris before her death
While in Paris for the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final, Harry, who was 23, was driven through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel at the same speed as the car that was carrying Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed when it crashed in August 1997.
Harry said there was “no reason anyone should ever die inside” the tunnel, adding that the drive was “a very bad idea”, People Magazine said.
– Harry claims a woman passed on a message from his mother
Harry said the woman, who “claimed to have ‘powers’,” told him Diana is “with” him and that she knows he is “looking for clarity” and “feels” his confusion.
He says the woman, who is not referred to as a psychic or medium, caused his neck to grow warm and his eyes to water, The Guardian reported.
– William was ‘tormented’ over their father’s affair with Camilla
According to the US publication Page Six, which obtained a copy of the Spanish version of Spare, William had felt “tremendous guilt” over their father’s relationship with “the Other Woman”.
Harry claims his brother “long harboured suspicions about the Other Woman”.
“(It) confused him, tormented him, and when those suspicions were confirmed he felt tremendous guilt for having done nothing, said nothing, sooner,” he writes.
– Harry wanted Diana inquiry reopened
Harry says both he and his brother “were talked out” of calling for a reinvestigation into his mother’s death “by the powers that be”.
He adds that he and William felt the final written report on the princess’s death was a “joke” and an “insult” and “riddled with basic factual errors and gaping logical holes”.
“It raised more questions than it answered,” Harry wrote.
– The King refused to allow Meghan to join him at Balmoral as the Queen was dying
Harry said to his father: “Don’t ever speak about my wife that way,” according to the Telegraph.
– Before Harry married Meghan, Charles told him ‘we don’t have money to spare’
When the King had asked his youngest son if his soon-to-be wife intended to keep working as an actress, Harry had said she likely was not.
According to Harry, his father replied: “Well, my dear son, you already know that we don’t have money to spare.”
Charles said the royal family could not financially support the couple and also reportedly complained he was struggling to support William and Kate.
– Harry accuses Charles of being jealous of the public attention William and Kate receive
The duke claims he became aware in 2015 his father was unhappy with the amount of attention his brother and sister-in-law received as it overshadowed Charles and Camilla.
According to The Telegraph, Harry writes in his memoir: “Willy did everything he (Charles) wanted, and sometimes he didn’t want him to do much, because my dad and Camilla didn’t like Willy and Kate getting too much publicity.”
He alleges that ahead of one particular public engagement, Charles’s staff had insisted Kate was not photographed holding a tennis racket, writing: “Undoubtedly that kind of photo would have pushed Dad and Camilla off every front page. And that couldn’t be tolerated under any circumstances.”