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Prince William described Meghan Markle as "rude," "difficult" and "abrasive" before getting into a physical fight with Prince Harry at Kensington Palace in 2019, according to a leaked extract from Harry's highly anticipated royal memoir Spare.
Published by British newspaper The Guardian on Thursday, the extract saw Harry accuse William's views on Meghan of being a "parrot[ing of] the press narrative" about her—which at the time was increasingly negative.
Since the Sussexes split from the monarchy in 2020 and moved to the U.S., William has been mostly silent on the strained relationship with his brother, only once publicly refuting the allegation of racism against the royal family made by Harry and Meghan in their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Royal fans hoping for a building of bridges between the pair after seeing them reunited for the mourning events for Queen Elizabeth II in September may be disappointed, as the Spare extract details a more volatile side to the brothers' relationship than previously revealed.
The brothers got into a physical fight after William met with Harry at Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace in 2019, per The Guardian, around the time reports that a rift between them had developed.
Harry writes that William arrived at the meeting "piping hot." After an exchange of insults, the extract recounts how Harry told his brother: "Willy, I can't speak to you when you're like this."
"He set down the water, called me another name, then came at me," Harry wrote.
"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."
William's alleged comments about Meghan being "rude" and "difficult" shed light on a previously down-played rift between brother- and sister-in-law, with the narrative thus far having focussed on Meghan's relationship with Kate Middleton.
Again in 2019, reports circulated in the British tabloid press that Meghan had made Kate cry in the lead up to the royal wedding a year before.
Meghan came out publicly to dispute this claim, which she described as a turning point in her relationship with the British media, during her interview with Oprah Winfrey.
"A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something…and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings," Meghan said.
She went on to add that the princess had apologized for the incident and given her flowers, which she had accepted but criticized the palace for not issuing a clarifying statement to the press, who continued to scrutinize her for it.
Ultimately, Meghan said that Kate was "a good person," and added that the idea of pitting one royal sister-in-law against the other was unnecessary.
"I think so much of what I have seen play out is this idea of polarity, where if you love me, you don't have to hate her," she explained, "And if you love her, you don't need to hate me."
In this discussion, Meghan's relationship with William was not raised, however, in her recent Netflix docuseries a fractured relationship was alluded to when she appeared to accuse her brother-in-law of authorizing a staff member to submit evidence against her in a legal battle.
In an episode of Harry & Meghan released through Netflix in December, the duchess' privacy lawsuit with the Mail on Sunday relating to the publication of a letter written to her father in 2018, was charted.
Reacting live to the news that former palace staffer and aide to William, Jason Knauf, had submitted evidence in the legal case against her, Meghan told Harry on-camera: "It's your brother. I'm not going to say anything about your brother, but it's so obvious."
Meghan later went on to win the legal battle despite Knauf's evidence prompting her to apologize to the court for misleading them over her involvement with the biography Finding Freedom.
Harry's memoir will be publisheded globally on January 10 and the prince has recorded two sit-down interviews promoting this to air on either side of the Atlantic on January 8.
Newsweek has approached Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and representatives of Prince Harry and Penguin Random House for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more