Prince Harry Spare book revelations: ‘If you don’t mind, keep your finger out of my face’, Meghan tells Prince William
Tense confrontations between the princes and their wives have been revealed in Harry’s memoir, in which he admits he killed 25 Taliban soldiers as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.
Prince William called Meghan Markle “difficult, rude and abrasive”, Prince Harry recounts in his book, Spare, prompting a physical fight between the two in which William ripped off Harry’s necklace and Harry landed on his back, smashing the dog bowl.
Elsewhere in the book, which has been released in Spain, Harry has presented himself as a war hero, saying he killed 25 Taliban during his missions to Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot. He describes their removal as “chess pieces off the board” and admits he watched videos of each kill upon his return to base.
“With exactness (I know) how many enemy combatants I had killed. And it seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number. So my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me,” Harry writes.
In addition, Harry discloses that Meghan insulted William’s wife, Kate, by telling her she had “baby-brain because of her hormones” following issues around flower girl dresses and the timing of the rehearsal on the eve of their Windsor Castle wedding in May, 2018.
Meghan reportedly became upset after William told her off for making such a personal remark to Kate, who had given birth just months earlier, while Meghan believed she had done nothing wrong. This seemingly was behind the argument about who made whom cry.
After upsetting Kate, Harry said Meghan apologised, but insisted that was how she spoke to her friends.
But Harry writes that William then pointed a finger at Meghan and thundered “Well, it’s rude, Meghan. These things are not done here”. Meghan responded: “If you don’t mind, keep your finger out of my face”.
In another disclosure Harry insists that what he described as the worst decision of his life – wearing a Nazi uniform to a party when he was 20 – had been encouraged by both William and Kate who “howled with laughter” at his decision.
Harry writes in the book: “I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said.”
Around the same period, Harry says that both he and William begged Charles not to marry Camilla fearing she would be a “wicked stepmother”.
Harry said meeting Camilla for the first time was like having an injection, writing: “Close your eyes and you won’t even feel it.”
Harry says he believed the drunk driver who was at the wheel when his mother died in Paris in 1997 wouldn’t have crashed except for chasing paparazzi.
“Even if the man had been drinking, even if he had been drunk, he wouldn’t have had any problem driving through such a short tunnel unless paparazzi were following him and dazzled him,” Harry writes.
The French investigation into Princess Diana’s death found that the driver Henri Paul had been driving at 196kmh when he lost control of the vehcile and that he had a high blood alcohol reading of 0.175, well over the legal limit.
Harry reveals that as well as drinking and smoking cannabis he had taken cocaine, but that it wasn’t much fun and he had done because he was a “seventeen-year-old willing to try almost anything that would upset the established order”.
Further in the book, Harry describes William as his polar opposite and an “arch enemy” during a meeting after the funeral of Prince Philip in April 2021.
“My dear brother, my arch enemy, how did we come to this? I felt overwhelming tiredness. I wanted to go home,” Harry says.
Harry also confirms what most suspected – that King Charles had told him not to bring Meghan to Balmoral in the hours just before the Queen died, because he didn’t want the castle to be full of people around his dying mother.
In what has been described as a major mix-up, Harry’s memoirs were put on sale in Spain on Thursday, causing a rush by major news outlets to transcribe the Spanish version of the book, which was supposed to be under intense security until global release next Tuesday.
Harry says of the brotherly bust-up in 2019 inside Notts Cottage at Kensington Palace that 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.”
Harry says William was “piping hot” as he confronted Harry about “the whole rolling catastrophe”, believed to be allegations of Meghan’s bullying of staff and internal complaints being filed. Harry didn’t tell Meghan about the incident at first, instead calling his therapist.
Harry says William, whom he often calls “Willy”, had told him “I didn’t attack you Harold”.
The disclosures raise fresh and serious issues for King Charles, who is reportedly still keen for the Sussexes to attend his May 6 coronation.
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