Duke: only beard people ‘get’ my anger at royal protocol on hair
‘I would feel different without my beard – that’s hard for people to understand who’ve never grown one’
PRINCE HARRY has suggested that only “beard people” would understand his anger at William wanting him to shave off his facial hair for his wedding day.
He accused William of being “competitive” because the late Queen had ordered him to shave off a beard he grew during a military assignment in 2008 – but allowed his younger brother to keep his bristles.
Describing his beard as “a shield to my anxiety”, Harry told ITV’S Tom Bradby last night: “I think William found it hard that other people told him to shave it off, and yet here I was on my wedding day wearing military uniform, no longer in the military, um, but thinking as though I – believing as though I should shave it off before my wedding day.
“And I said, ‘Well I don’t believe that Meghan’s going to recognise me if she comes up the aisle and sees me beardless.’
“I would feel very, very different without my beard, and that’s hard for people to understand who’ve never grown a beard, um, but hopefully those beard people out there will go ‘Yeah, no,
I fully get that, I can understand.’” In his autobiography, Spare, which has been published in Spain, Harry admits that “a beard was thought by some to be a clear violation of protocol and long-standing norms”, adding that they “were forbidden in the British Army”.
Queen Elizabeth II was never a fan of facial hair – and apparently ordered her husband to shave the beard he grew during a solo tour around the Commonwealth in 1965. When he returned on the Royal Yacht Britannia, his wife played a prank on him by arranging for everyone in the royal entourage — herself included — to put on fake whiskers just before he walked in.
In the memoir, Harry muses as to whether his beard was “Freudian: beard as security blanket” or “Jungian: beard as mask”.
Insisting his late grandmother “understood” it made him feel calmer, he writes: “Yes, she said, you may keep your beard. But then I explained it to my brother and he... bristled?
“‘Not the done thing,’ he said. ‘Military rules, so forth.’”
Harry said he gave his older brother “a quick history lesson” with the help of Google – showing images of Royal ancestors who were bearded and uniformed, such as Edward VII and George V. He claims William “became livid” when Harry informed him their grandmother had already granted permission to keep the facial hair.
Quoting William, he adds: “You put her in an uncomfortable position, Harold! She had no choice but to say yes.”
He said William “wouldn’t let it go” and that the argument continued “in person, on the phone, for more than a week”. When William then ordered him to shave his beard off, Harry says he replied: “For the love of God, Willy, why does this matter so much to you?”
“Because I wasn’t allowed to keep my beard.” Harry concludes: “Ah, there it was. He hated the idea of me enjoying a perk he’d been denied.”