Prince Harry’s claim that Prince William physically assaulted him is “massively overblown”, an insider has revealed.
The Duke of Sussex made headlines in 2023 when he released his memoir Spare, which contained a number of claims regarding the royal family, particulalry the Prince of Wales.
The royal raised eyebrows when he recalled what he described as a “physical attack” by his brother in 2019 following an argument about Harry’s wife Meghan Markle.
Now, a royal source has told author Russell Myers that Harry’s decision to air the argument was “a cheap shot”.
“Tensions were running very high, and yes, there certainly were cross words exchanged that on reflection were regrettable, but the Prince [William] is adamant there was no physical violence,” Myers wrote in his new biography, William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story.
What’s more, a separate source disclosed that palace staff had been “ground down’ by the Sussexes at the time, something that William and his wife Kate Middleton were not going to condone.
“It wasn’t peddling a tabloid narrative to stick up for staff that were deeply unhappy to the point of walking away or having their mental health being affected,” the insider added.
Elsewhere in the book, Myers detailed the varying reactions of the Prince and Princess of Wales when Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal life.
Allegedly, Kate “had less interest than her husband in trying to persuade Harry to stay in his current role”.
According to Myers, the brothers’ “fundamental differences” and the “heir and the spare” narrative made it clear to Kate that Harry would want more from his role than being a “bit-part player”.
However, William was deeply hurt by Harry’s decision to quit.
Myers writes: “Fond memories of their childhood, from helping each other through the tragedy of their mother’s death, to growing up in the public eye, were now tarnished by the division at the heart of the family.”
In Spare, the Duke of Sussex alleged that his brother confronted him at his then-residence Nottingham Cottage in 2019, where the future King called Harry’s wife Meghan “difficult,” “rude” and “abrasive”.
The argument saw Harry accuse William of “parrot[ing of] the press narrative”, which allegedly saw the future King erupt into name-calling aimed at his younger brother.
According to the Duke of Sussex, he tried to calm his brother down during the tense encounter, offering him a glass of water to diffuse the situation.
“He set down the water, called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast,” Harry wrote.
“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.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.skynews.com.au ’
