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A friend of Prince William has told The Daily Beast that the prince feels “utterly betrayed” by Prince Harry’s new book Spare, and “hates” Harry and Meghan due to the highly personal nature of the attacks they have unleashed on him and wife Kate Middleton.
After a day of sensational leaks and headlines from the book, the friend said they believe it is now completely impossible that the relationship will ever be healed, and said that although they believed Harry and Meghan would still be invited to the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla, they suspected that William would insist that they be relegated to the “cheap seats.”
The friend said, “If they decided not to show their faces, no-one would mourn their absence.”
The friend added: “It’s impossible to exaggerate the extent of [William’s] contempt for Harry and Meghan now. He absolutely hates them, and can’t believe that Harry would do this to him and to Kate. He feels utterly betrayed and deeply saddened by everything that has happened. There will be no way back after this.
“The thing that is so sad is that this was a tight family. Harry has blown it all up. For what? He has literally turned his entire family against him.”
The friend said they had no information on the specifics of the alleged physical attack made on Harry by William, first leaked to the Guardian, which resulted in Harry falling to the ground and breaking a dog bowl, but said, “It hardly sounds like a violent assault.”
Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have not responded to the allegations, and are not expected to.
The book has delivered a series of shocking revelations after it was accidentally put on sale in Spain Thursday, five days ahead of its publication date, including claims that Harry and William both wanted the inquiry into Diana’s death reopened.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend Christmas Day Church service at Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate on December 25, 2018 in King’s Lynn, England.
Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage
According to some translations of the Spanish text, Harry calls the conclusion that the crash was caused solely due to a drunk driver “simplistic and absurd,” and asks “Why had those paparazzi got off lightly? Why weren’t they in prison? Who had sent them? And why weren’t those people in jail either? What other reason could there be apart from corruption and cover-ups being the order of the day?”
The raft of revelations includes a confrontation that followed Meghan saying to Kate that the latter had “baby brain,” which ended with Meghan telling Willian to not point a finger in her face. Harry also accused Queen Consort Camilla of “a long-term strategy” of plotting to marry his father King Charles and become queen, and Charles himself pleading with his sons not to make his “final years a misery.”
In the memoir, Harry says William and Kate had encouraged him to wear the Nazi uniform that caused such a furore in 2005. Harry also writes that he lost his virginity in a field behind a pub. According to a translation posted on the Sky News website, Harry described his partner as “an older lady, who loved horses very much and treated me like a young stallion … I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and held me back… one of my mistakes was letting it happen in a field, just behind a busy pub. No doubt someone had seen us.”
The Daily Beast understands from friends of Harry’s set that the pub in question is a now-shuttered, formerly legendary hostelry in the Cotswolds where the “glossy posse” used to go after hunting, named The Tunnel House Inn—and known locally as the Tunnel.
“Harry and Meghan look desperate. The palace might just let the storm blow out a little bit.”
— Mark Borkowski
The publicist, author and crisis consultant Mark Borkowski told The Daily Beast: “I doubt the palace will say anything, and if they do, it won’t be until all the interviews are over and the book is actually published. If they do comment, it will be something elegant along the lines of the “recollections may vary” statement put out after the Oprah interview.
“They don’t have to say anything and the strategy at the moment is to not say anything, to starve Harry of oxygen. I think most people are feeling we have had enough, and the endless weaponizing of the wound is getting repetitive now. Harry and Meghan look desperate. The palace might just let the storm blow out a little bit.”
Borkowski said he was horrified by Harry’s decision to say he had killed 25 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
“It is absolutely idiotic. Salman Rushdie was very nearly killed in Boston the other day. It’s trending very badly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I am incredulous, after all the representations he has made about his security, that he could do something so stupid and put his whole family at risk for publicity. His great uncle was killed by the IRA for god’s sake, and he does this? It’s so crazy.”
As well as possible further revelations from the memoir, Harry will also be giving interviews—beginning Sunday—to British TV anchor Tom Bradby, Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. Other confirmed interviews with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, and Stephen Colbert on The Late Show will follow.
