William Allegedly Shoved Harry During an Argument
During an argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage, Harry and Meghan's Kensington Palace home, he alleges that William called Meghan "rude," "difficult" and "abrasive," and claimed she'd "alienated half the staff." Harry, in turn, accused his brother of parroting the reigning media narrative about his wife.
William "seemed aggrieved," Harry writes. "He seemed put upon that I wasn't meekly obeying him, that I was being so impertinent as to deny him, or defy him, to refute his knowledge, which came from his trusted aides. There was a script here and I had the audacity not to be following it. He was in full Heir mode, and couldn't fathom why I wasn't dutifully playing the role of the Spare."
His brother had also shown up "piping hot," Harry continues, and both ended up shouting at each other. Harry describes giving William a glass of water, which his brother set down, after which he "called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast."
Harry alleges: "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."
William encouraged him to hit back and, when he refused, William looked regretful and apologized, Spare continues. As he was leaving, William turned and said, "'You don't need to tell Meg about this.'"
"'You mean that you attacked me?'" Harry recalls saying, to which William allegedly replied, "I didn't attack you, Harold.'"
Harry writes that the first call he made afterward was to his therapist and, though he didn't immediately tell Meghan, she noticed the cuts on his back and "was terribly sad." Not long after, it was announced that the Cambridges and Sussexes would no longer be sharing an office.
Kensington Palace declined to comment on Harry's accusation.
Harry Went to a Psychic
After resettling in California with Meghan and son Archie, Harry visited a psychic, who immediately told him his mother was with him.
"I needed proof. A sign. Anything," he writes. "'Your mother says...the ornament?' 'Ornament?' 'She was there.' 'Where?' 'Your mother says...something about a Christmas ornament? Of a mother? Or a grandmother? It fell? Broke?' 'Archie tried to fix it.' 'Your mother says she had a bit of a giggle about that.'"
Harry had previously shared a story about Archie accidentally breaking an ornament of his great-grandmother, the queen, and then trying to spritz the pieces with water, apparently thinking they might grow back together.
A Family Blow-Up After Prince Philip's Funeral
Harry recalls drumming up his nerve to address the elephant in the room, having asked for a secret meeting with his brother and father after Prince Philip's funeral in April 2021. It was Harry's first trip back to England since he and Meghan wrapped up their duties as senior royals in early March 2020.
"Apart from fear, I was feeling a kind of hyper-awareness, and a hugely intense vulnerability, which I'd experienced at other key moments of my life," Harry writes. "Walking behind my mother's coffin. Going into battle for the first time. Giving a speech in the middle of a panic attack."
But "Pa and Willy had their parts to play, and they'd come ready for a fight." Harry remembers Charles telling his sons, "'Please, boys—don't make my final years a misery," and notes William's "familiar scowl," "alarming baldness, more advanced than my own," and "famous resemblance to Mummy, which was fading with time. With age."
According to Harry, William ("My beloved brother, my arch nemesis") and Charles insisted they didn't know why he had moved away. They said he was "delusional" for thinking he could take on the British press, he writes. William suggested that Harry and Meghan sitting down with Oprah was no different than the royals cooperating with the media and told his younger brother his predicament was his own fault "for never asking for help."
When Harry charged that the family had stripped his family of their security, he writes, William countered with, "That was Granny! Take it up with Granny!"
"I waved a hand, disgusted," Harry continues, "but he lunged, grabbed my shirt. 'Listen to me, Harold...I just want you to be happy, Harold. I swear...I swear on Mummy's life.'"
Invoking their mother "stopped me cold, as it was meant to," Harry writes. "Not because he'd used it, but because it didn't work. I simply didn't believe him, didn't fully trust him. And vice versa."
How Harry Found Out the Queen Had Died
Harry recalls getting the call from his father that the queen wasn't doing well on Sept. 8, 2022, and he needed to come to Balmoral right away—alone.
When Harry took offense, he writes, Charles "stammered, apologetic, saying he simply didn't want a lot of people around. No other wives were coming, Kate wasn't coming, he said, therefore Meg shouldn't."
Already in the U.K. with Meghan for an event, Harry immediately got on a flight—but found out on the descent into Scotland that he was too late.
His wife had texted him, "'Call me the moment you get this,'" he writes. "I checked the BBC website. Granny was gone. Pa was King."
When Harry got to Balmoral, his aunt Princess Anne greeted him and asked if he wanted to see the queen. So he went up to her bedroom, where, he writes, "I whispered to her that I hoped she was happy, that I hoped she was with Grandpa. I said that I was in awe of her carrying out her duties to the last." He proceeded to have lunch with "most of my family, though still no Pa, Willy, or Camilla."