Prince Harry makes an explosive claim he was attacked by brother Prince William in his new memoir 'Spare'. AP
Prince Harry has claimed he was forced to go along with his brother’s “bare-faced lie” that he was the best man at his wedding in 2011.
The Duke revealed his rift with his older sibling meant “Willy didn’t want me giving a best man’s speech”, according to his bombshell memoir, Spare.
In an extraordinarily personal revelation, Harry claims he was made to act out the role of best man to spare the blushes of Prince William’s two closest friends.
The Duke was officially considered his brother’s best man at the nuptials and even travelled with his father and future King to Westminster Abbey in a Bentley that day.
But in the latest in a string of “truth-bombs” lobbed at the royal family, Harry declares the best man stunt was all for show and his brother’s friends, James Meade and Thomas Van Straubenzee, gave the traditional speech at the reception.
Prince Harry as best man at older brother William's marriage to Kate Middleton. Photo / AP
In other claims, the Prince tells how William was meeting people who had assembled on the Mall by Buckingham Palace while “tipsy on last night’s rum” just hours before his wedding to Kate.
His remarks are the latest in his deeply personal war of words with William, whom he has already accused of pushing him over onto a dog bowl during a blazing row at Nottingham Cottage in 2019.
Harry’s claims are the latest devastating broadside against his older brother, with William the central target for much of the Duke’s ire within the 557 pages of Spare.
Harry has also alleged that there was a fight between him and the Prince of Wales after William called Meghan Markle “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”.
Harry has talked openly of wanting to reconcile with his father and his sibling, despite his extraordinary claims plunging the royal family into its worst crisis since the death of his mother in 1997.
In the book, the 38-year-old prince, who stepped down from official duties in 2020 to start a new life in the US, also calls William’s baldness “alarming”.
He recalled coming face-to-face with his brother after a long time away during a trip to England for their grandfather Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021 and admitted he was shocked by how much his older sibling’s resemblance to their late mother, Princess Diana, had “faded”.
He wrote in his new memoir Spare: “I looked at Willy, really looked at him, perhaps for the first time since we were little, taking in every detail: his familiar scowl, which had always been the norm in his dealings with me.”
The Duke of Sussex added he found his older brother’s thinning hair “alarming” and more “advanced than mine”.
He added: “My dear brother, my arch-enemy, how did we come to this? I felt overwhelming tiredness. I wanted to go home.”
Prince Harry writes in his new book that he was shocked by his brother's hair loss when he returned to the UK for Prince Philip's funeral. Photo / Getty Images
Harry also claimed William “ordered” him to shave before his wedding to Meghan Markle.
The Prince sought permission from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, to keep his facial hair for his nuptials and said his older sibling was “livid” when she gave him the “green light” to do so.
Harry told William “his opinion didn’t really matter” because of the Queen’s decision but he said his brother “raised his voice” and accused him of putting their grandmother in an “uncomfortable position”.
Meghan and Harry's wedding photos shown in the trailer for part two of their Netflix series. Photo / Netflix
Harry claimed William told him: “She had no choice but to say yes.”
And the row continued for some time. Harry wrote: “He wouldn’t let it go. At one point he actually ordered me, as the Heir speaking to the Spare, to shave. Are you serious?”
The Prince believed William was so bothered because he thought the Queen had a “soft spot” for him, and also because the Prince of Wales “wasn’t allowed” to keep his “full beard” after returning from military duty, or be able to get married in a uniform of his own choosing, as Harry could.
