bitchy | Myers: A source insists that Prince William never assaulted Harry in 2019

In January 2023, just days before Prince Harry’s Spare was published worldwide, the Guardian broke one of the biggest stories from the memoir. That story? That Prince William had assaulted Harry in Nottingham Cottage in early 2019. Harry wrote about how his brother came to his home when Meghan wasn’t there, and William began ranting about how Meghan “treated staff” and how Harry needed to do something about something? While Harry sort of talked around it, it felt like William was arguing that Harry needed to leave Meghan and/or send Meghan packing. When Harry argued back, William trailed Harry into the kitchen, suddenly grabbed him and threw Harry to the floor. Harry fell on and broke the dog bowl and William managed to rip off Harry’s necklace as well. Harry was left with bruises, which were later seen by Meghan.

In many ways, we had been primed for this story from William’s own loyalists and sycophants, who spoke for years about William’s “incandescent rage” or “catatonic rage” and violent fury when it came to… his brother marrying a beautiful American woman. William’s loyalists have rarely doubted Harry’s story either, they’ve just spent the past three years twisting themselves in knots to excuse William or minimize his violence. Well, in Russell Myers’ new book William & Catherine, an unnamed source now disputes the “William assaulted Harry” story.

Prince Harry’s claim Prince William physically assaulted him in a heated row was “massively overblown”, an insider has revealed. Sources close to the Prince of Wales say Harry’s account of the altercation, which saw William confront his younger brother over his wife Meghan’s behaviour towards palace staff, was a “cheap shot”.

A new biography, William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, by The Mirror’s royal editor Russell Myers, reveals for the first time how sources with knowledge of the incident questioned the claims made by Harry in his bombshell memoir, Spare. The allegation that the warring brothers got into a physical altercation when William questioned Harry about Meghan being ‘difficult’ and ‘abrasive’ to those working for the Royal Family was one of the most explosive in Harry’s autobiography.

The Duke of Sussex claimed that during the incident at Harry’s former home of Nottingham Cottage in Kensington Palace, William grabbed him by the collar, knocked him to the floor, which ripped his necklace, and caused a dog bowl that Harry landed on, to crack under his back.

William has always remained silent on the claims, but in William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, a source says: “It was a cheap shot [from Harry] to present such an argument. 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.”

In Spare, Harry accuses William of peddling the tabloid narrative about Meghan, which led to the tense argument. But a source included in the book says that staff had been “ground down” by the Sussexes and adds: “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.”

[From The Daily Mirror]

Yeah, I don’t believe that an unnamed source has the big scoop three years after Spare was published and seven years after the incident in question. For three years, no one has managed to get anyone on or off the record to dispute the story – William’s camp practically took the position of “William was completely justified no matter what.” The thing about Harry’s narrative is that it was one of several missing pieces we needed to fill in the larger story of “what really happened” and “why Harry and Meghan had to get the hell out of there.” If anything, I genuinely believe that Harry edited out additional stories of William’s aggression and perhaps even William’s violence. I also believe Harry likely downplayed some of the verbally abusive things William said as well.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.