Prince Harry makes an explosive claim he was attacked by brother Prince William in his new memoir 'Spare'. AP
OPINION:
When her second son was growing up, Diana, Princess of Wales, reportedly gave him the nickname “Good King Harry”.
Keen to raise her boys as equals even though she knew they had very different destinies, the late princess even went so far as to suggest that Harry would makea better king than William, according to Angela Levin, the author.
In her 2018 biography Harry: Conversations with the Prince, Levin claimed Diana identified qualities in Harry that would make him a superior ruler, including his “ability to cope”, “ease with people”, and “general gusto”.
One can only speculate as to what Diana would make of that assessment now were she still alive today.
For Harry’s claim in his forthcoming autobiography that William not only physically attacked him but also encouraged him to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party, suggests he is the ultimate “spare” – an over-pampered prince wanting all the privileges but none of the responsibility of royal life.
Rather than taking ownership of his actions, everything is everyone else’s fault.
Harry is proving with his reckless actions that he has always largely regarded himself as able to do whatever he likes. Photo / AP
According to a leaked excerpt, he reportedly writes of the fancy dress party in 2005: “I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said.”
The Duke was 20 years old at the time, but the suggestion seems to be that he would not have dressed like the SS without his brother and sister-in-law’s say-so.
Such an abrogation of responsibility is the sign of a “spare” if ever there was one.
For only a “spare” would be able to appear on Oprah Winfrey, film a six-part Netflix documentary and write a book trashing the royal family – and still expect to garner public sympathy afterwards.
As heir to the throne, William has no choice but to maintain a dignified silence – because that’s what future kings do.
But as “spare”, Harry is once again proving with his typically reckless actions that he has always largely regarded himself as able to do whatever he likes.
In the world according to Harry and Meghan, they are not just always right but also always wronged at the hands of an “evil” aggressor, be it the monarchy, the media or their own royal relatives. In Sussexville, everything is always everyone else’s fault.
Kate is blamed for making Meghan cry at a bridesmaids dress fitting when reports suggest it was the other way round.
In the world according to Harry and Meghan, they are not just always right – but always wronged at the hands of an "evil" aggressor. Photo / Getty Images
The “institution” is blamed for isolating the couple when they were increasingly operating in a “us against the world” silo. The Mail is even blamed for Meghan’s miscarriage.
Meanwhile, it was the palace’s fault that the Duchess received no help while being pushed to the brink of suicide by “The Firm”, even though the latest revelation suggests Harry had his therapist on speed dial.
And now William is being blamed for “parroting” a press narrative, which, in another breath, Harry claims was the result of “leaking and briefing” by the palace.
The timing of this “dog bowl attack” is significant. If it happened in 2019, then it took place after Jason Knauf, the brothers’ former joint communications secretary, submitted a bullying complaint against Meghan in October 2018, but well before the media had reported on it.
News of the damaging dossier, in which it was claimed the Duchess had driven two personal assistants out of the household and undermined the confidence of the third employee, did not surface until March 2021, two years after this altercation is meant to have taken place.
Meghan denies the allegations, and the findings of an internal palace investigation have never been published.
Yet the timing would suggest that this was really a row about William siding with the staff against his sister-in-law, not the media.
Harry’s argument, no doubt, was that blood should be thicker than water; that family should come first. How hollow that sentiment must ring right now as he refuses to spare William the ignominy of continuing to wash their dirty linen in public.
