“Fell on a dog bowl”: Prince Harry described a fight with his brother

In his highly publicized and long-awaited autobiography, Spare, Prince Harry opens up about what he says was a physical assault by his brother William, now the Prince of Wales, when their relationship fell apart due to the younger prince’s marriage to an actress. Megan Markle.

Describing a confrontation at his London home in 2019, Harry revealed that William called Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “edgy”, which Harry calls “parroting press narrative” about his American wife, The Guardian writes.

The confrontation escalated, writes Harry, and ended up with William “grabbing me by the collar, breaking the chain and… knocking me to the floor.”

The unusual scene, which Harry says resulted in a visible injury to his back, is one of many in a book that will be published worldwide next week and is likely to cause a major furor in the British royal family. The Guardian managed to get a copy of the Duke of Sussex’s autobiography in advance.

The title of the book, Spare, comes from an old saying in royal and aristocratic circles: the first son is the heir to titles, power and fortune, and the second is a spare in case something happens to the firstborn.

Harry writes that William wanted to talk about “the whole rolling disaster” of their relationship and wrestling with the press. But when William arrived at Harry’s then-living Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace and known as “Knott Cott”, he was, according to Harry, already “hot”.

After William complained about Meghan, the book says, Harry told him that he was repeating the press and that he expected more. But William, according to Harry, acted unwisely, which led the brothers to start yelling at each other.

Harry then accused his brother of acting like an heir, unable to understand why his younger brother was unhappy about being the substitute.

They exchanged insults before William stated that he was trying to help. Harry retorted, “Are you serious? Help me? I’m sorry, is that what you call it? Help me?”

This comment, according to Harry, angered his brother, who swore as he approached him. Frightened, Harry went into the kitchen, and his furious brother followed him. Harry writes that he gave his brother a glass of water and said, “Willie, I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”

Further, the prince recalls writing: “He put on the water, called me by a different name, then came up to me. Everything happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, broke the chain and threw me to the floor. I fell on the dog bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces pierced me. I lay there for a while, dazed, then got up and told him to get out.”

Harry writes that William encouraged him to strike back, referring to fights they had as children. Harry says he refused to do it. William left, Harry says, and then returned “with regret and apology”.

As William left again, his brother writes, he “turned around and said, ‘You don’t have to tell Meg about this.’

“You mean you attacked me?”

“I didn’t attack you, Harold.”

Harry says he didn’t immediately tell his wife what had happened, but called his GP.

When Meghan later noticed the “scratches and bruises” on his back and so he told her about the attack, Harry says she “wasn’t all that surprised and not all that angry”: “She was terribly sad.”

Harry’s resentment of being a “spare” serves as a unifying theme in his book, in chapters about his childhood, his schooling, his career in the royal family and the British army, his relationship with his parents and brother, and his life with Meghan.

In the beginning, Harry tells the story of how his father Charles, now King Charles III, allegedly told his wife, Princess Diana, on Harry’s birthday, “Great! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare, my job is done.”

Whether it’s describing his memories and love for Diana, who died in a car accident in Paris in August 1997, or his similar love for his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died the previous year, Harry is relentless in his account of extremely personal scenes and conversations, notes The Guardian.

Harry met Meghan Markle in 2016. They got married at Windsor Castle in 2018. As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, they began life as working members of the royal family but quickly became estranged from the family and eventually began a largely separate existence, moving to Canada and then to California.

Their acrimonious split with the royals has been the subject of endless press coverage, including through the famous Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021 that sparked huge controversy on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world. The plots of this interview and the recently released Netflix documentary, including Meghan’s miscarriage and suicidal thoughts, as well as hints of racism in royal circles, are extensively covered in Harry’s book.

In a recently released ITV interview excerpt, Harry says: “I would like my father back, I would like my brother back.” But, The Guardian emphasizes, given the details outlined in his book, this may seem unlikely. Indeed, one of Harry’s most pertinent revelations about private conversations between senior members of the royal family comes from the very beginning of his book.

Harry recalls the harrowing meeting with his father and brother after the funeral at Windsor Castle of Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband, in April 2021. Charles, he said, stood between his feuding sons, “looking at our flushed faces.” “Please, boys,” Harry quotes his father’s words. “Don’t make my last years misery.”