Buckingham Palace has remained silent tonight following an onslaught of explosive extracts from Prince Harry’s autobiography Spare, which appear to have cast a negative light on almost every member of the Royal Family.
The tell-all memoir of the Duke of Sussex was supposed to be released next week, but it was accidentally made available in Spain on Wednesday in an apparent PR disaster for publishers Penguin Random House.
It led to the reporting of extraordinary passages which have laid bare the inner tensions that continue to plague the Royal Household. According to the Daily Mail, Palace aides are frantically digesting the contents of the 570-plus page diatribe.
Perhaps the most damaging account is that of an alleged physical altercation between William and Harry, when they began arguing abut the latter’s wife Meghan Markle on the eve of Megxit in 2019.
Perhaps the most damaging account is that of an alleged physical altercation between William and Harry, (pictured together) when they began arguing abut the latter’s wife Meghan Markle on the eve of Megxit in 2019
Harry has detailed shock revelations in his tell-all memoir Spare, that has been leaked days before it was due to be published (Pictured: A woman in Spain holds a copy of the book after it was accidentally released early in the country)
William is said to have branded Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’ and insisted he was trying to help his younger brother during a meeting about ‘the whole rolling catastrophe’ of their failing relationship and Harry’s rows with the Press.
Harry accused his brother of ‘parroting the Press narrative’ about his American wife before a screaming match ensued, ending in a physical altercation, the book claims.
He says he gave the heir to the throne a glass of water and said: ‘Willy, I can’t speak to you when you’re like this’.
Describing what he claims happened next, and insisting he was scared, the former soldier said: ‘He set down the water, 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’.
Elsewhere, he appears to place part of the blame for his Nazi costume fiasco in 2005 on his brother and his now wife Kate, the Princess of Wales.
The Duke of Sussex says in his new memoir that they both thought it was funny.
Harry claims he was considering either the Nazi uniform or a pilot’s outfit to a ‘Native and Colonial’ themed event and called his brother and sister-in-law for their opinion.
Prince Harry also sensationally accuses Camilla of plotting to marry Charles to take the Crown and of leaking stories to the press.
King Charles seen leaving Sandringham for the first time since excerpts from ‘Spare’ were leaked
Harry pictured yesterday with his dog Pula hours before revelations from his book were leaked
‘I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said,’ Harry wrote, according to Page Six.
It appears no member of the Firm has been left unscathed by the book, however the Palace is deciding, so far, to ignore its claims. Despite repeated requests for comment, it has refused to provide one.
It follows a similar decision in response to Harry and Meghan’s incendiary Netflix documentary last month.
The Sussexes used their show to wound Prince William and King Charles and claimed that dark forces blocked the Queen from seeing them before Megxit.
Harry also said his family were upset and jealous of Meghan’s popularity so pursued a vendetta against her because she was ‘doing the job better’ and ‘stealing the limelight’ from ‘those born to do it’.
But despite the slew of claims in six hours of interviews and footage, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace declined to comment on anything in the series.
It comes as the King was pictured leaving Sandringham House in Norfolk on Thursday afternoon, where he has been staying for the festive period.
His appearance came hours after revelations in Harry’s book were reported – including claims he and William begged their father not to marry Camilla after Diana’s death.
Prince Harry also sensationally accuses Camilla of plotting to marry Charles to take the Crown and of leaking stories to the press.
In an extraordinary passage the Duke of Sussex writes: ‘Shortly after our private meetings with her, she began to develop her long-term strategy, a campaign directed at marriage and with time, the Crown (with the blessing of our father, we supposed).
King Charles pleaded with his warring sons William and Harry not to make his ‘final years a misery’, the Duke of Sussex ‘s bombshell book has revealed
‘News stories started appearing in all the newspapers about her conversations with Willy, stories which recounted lots of small details, none of which came from my brother, of course.’
The Duke also claims that he and his brother William ‘begged’ the then-Prince of Wales not to remarry after Princess Diana’s death, fearing that she would be their ‘wicked stepmother’.
Charles had tried to win over his sons before asking the public to accept Camilla, the book claims. Harry then astonishingly says that meeting the future Queen Consort for the first time was like an ‘injection’.
A copy of Spare – due to be published on January 10 – was obtained by the Guardian, before copies accidentally went on sale in Spain.
The Duke of Sussex alleges in the autobiography that he and his brother would not stand in the way of the then-Prince of Wales’s relationship but had asked him not to walk down the aisle for the second time, calling Camilla the ‘Other Woman’.
In another passage from Harry’s highly anticipated autobiography, the duke recounts a meeting with his father and brother after Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021.
In the tell-all memoir, he recalls Charles standing between himself and the heir ‘looking up at our flushed faces’.
Harry then quotes his father as saying: ‘Please boys, don’t make my final years a misery.’