Willy has become my arch nemesis
Duke tells of fight at his cottage when brother pushed him over in kitchen, breaking dog’s bowl
BITTER Prince Harry has branded his brother the Prince of Wales his ‘arch-nemesis’ – who he claims physically attacked him in a fit of rage over Meghan’s behaviour.
In his leaked memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex sensationally lays bare his intense frustrations towards Prince William, whom he blames for turning their brotherly relationship into a ‘private Olympiad’.
The book casts his ‘polar opposite’, William, as the aggressor in their relationship who is responsible for the ‘tiresome childish dynamic’ between the brothers – as well as for an alleged shocking physical assault.
In an interview for Good Morning America to promote the book, Harry was asked: ‘There’s a quote in the book where you refer to your brother as your “beloved brother and arch-nemesis”. Strong words. What did you mean by that?’
The duke replied: ‘ There has always been this competition between us, weirdly. I think it really plays into or always played by the “heir/spare”.’
In the book, Harry described his brother, once his best friend, as his ‘polar opposite’, asking: ‘How did we come to this?’
In extracts of the Spanish edition ‘En La Sombra’ – which translates as ‘In The Shadow’ – Harry alleges that he was left visibly injured after he was assaulted by William, who he says grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the ground, his back shattering a dog bowl.
The Duke claims William – who he calls Willy – had insulted him and his wife when the furious row erupted at Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace in 2019. William was said to have demanded Harry ‘ do something’ about Meghan as she was a ‘rude’ and ‘difficult person’ who had made ‘enemies of half the staff’.
Harry said he had initially wanted to discuss ‘the whole rolling catastrophe’ of their relationship and struggles with the Press but instead, William had tried to ‘ lay down the law’. The duke claimed he asked his ‘irrational’ brother to relax as he was merely repeating the ‘Press narrative’ about his American wife – and he had expected him to behave better.
According to the duke’s recollection, in the English language version of the book, his elder brother had insisted he was only trying to ‘help’ Harry.
But William, according to Harry, only became more infuriated.
Harry wrote that his brother appeared ‘offended’ that he did not ‘submit quietly’ and that he ‘dared go against him or disobey him’.
The duke claims William became so angry that he went for his younger brother, who he calls Harold. Insisting he was scared, the former soldier added: ‘He broke my necklace by grabbing me by the collar of my shirt and he threw me to the ground.’
He landed on the dog bowl which cracked under his back with pieces cutting him, Harry wrote, adding that he eventually got up and told William to go.
Harry claims William urged him to fight back, saying that is what would happen when they scrapped as children.
When Harry says he refused to do so, William left before returning moments later to apologise but turned back to say there was ‘no need to tell Meg about this’. Harry claims he said: ‘You mean that you attacked me?’, to which William replied: ‘ I didn’t attack you, Harold.’
The duke says he called his therapist and didn’t tell his wife until she noticed slight injuries to his back. He that while Meghan was not surprised, she was ‘terribly sad’ about it.
Despite the narrative of the book, Harry said in a teaser for an ITV interview: ‘I would like to have my brother back.’
But his swipes throughout the memoir are only likely to worsen the strained relationship between the brothers – which is already said to be hanging by a thread. Painting William as the ‘scowling’ and ‘competitive’ heir to the throne Harry said the Prince of Wales was given preferential treatment from an early age - even nabbing the bigger room at Balmoral with a double bed and courtyard view.
He said as the ‘Spare’ he was expected to settle for the much smaller and less luxurious one, adding that he was the ‘shadow’.
From childhood, Harry wrote that the brothers would fight each other and exchange punches.
After one particular quarrel when their father yelled at them, Harry said he caught a furious William looking at him vengefully, adding that he caught a glimpse of the future King, plotting against his younger sibling.
He also claims William cruelly pretended not to know his younger brother as Harry struggled to adjust to life at Eton.
Harry wrote that he felt like he was in the ‘wrong place’ when he joined the prestigious school where William had already been studying for two years.
The duke says that upon joining,
He broke my necklace by grabbing me by the collar and threw me to the ground
William had told him to ‘pretend not to know him’ and that his brother acted as if him coming to Eton was a real ‘ordeal’.
And Harry claimed that William had always resented people seeing the siblings as one and hated it when their mother Diana had dressed them in the same outfits.
He also described on one occasion when he made the mistake of turning to his brother for comfort after being mocked by his classmates for shaving his head, only for William to join in with the laughter.
The duke also said in the Spanish edition that William was jealous of his plans for the Invictus Games and had become ‘deeply irritated’ when he contacted him to share his vision.
Harry wrote that William had unfounded issues regarding funding which he soon realised was simply down to petty competitiveness and sibling rivalry.
He added that William ‘insisted on’ turning their relationship ‘into some kind of private Olympiad’.
Casting himself ever as the underdog, Harry said his married brother who had a child on the way had already won and had ‘insurmountable advantage’ while he was left stuck still living with his father.
Harry also claims that William was upset that Harry was able to have a beard on his wedding day after being allowed to by the Queen.
Claiming it was against etiquette and army regulations, Harry says his older brother ordered him to shave it. He said that his brother was jealous that their grandmother had a ‘soft spot’ for Harry while the bar was set much higher for William as he was heir to the throne.
Throughout this explosive memoir, Harry repeatedly attacks his brother – even talking of William’s ‘alarming’ baldness.