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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Vanessa Thorpe

Drugs, sex and killings: six explosive revelations from Prince Harry’s book

A poster advertising Prince Harry's memoir in London. The book is scheduled to go on sale on January 10 but copies accidentally went on sale early in Spain.
A poster advertising Prince Harry's memoir in London. The book is scheduled to go on sale on January 10 but copies accidentally went on sale early in Spain. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty

1. Dog bowl fight

The Duke of Sussex alleges he scuffled with his brother at his home in Nottingham Cottage in 2019 when the Prince of Wales called his wife Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”. “Everything happened so fast. Really, really fast. He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor … I fell on top of the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces of it cutting into me.” He will tell ITV’s Tom Bradby on Sunday that he saw a “red mist” descend on William.

2. Baby Brain row

Preparations for Harry and Meghan’s wedding led to rows between the bride and her future sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales. Meghan’s suggestion that her hormones might have resulted in “baby brain” after the birth of Prince Louis in a phone call about wedding rehearsals infuriated Kate. It is alleged that Prince William pointed at Meghan and said this was not how things were done in Britain. It is also claimed the Princess of Wales made the Duchess cry when she asked her to sort out Princess Charlotte’s oversized flower girl dress for the ceremony.

3. Nazi outfit choice

The Prince and Princess of Wales were partly responsible, the book claims, for the row in 2005 after Prince Harry was photographed wearing a German Nazi uniform at a fancy dress party. He says he called for advice before the event and they told him to go in the costume, complete with swastika armband, adding that they howled with laughter, before photographs were sold to the press.

4. Taliban “kills”

The Duke reveals that, as an Apache helicopter co-pilot during a second tour of duty in Afghanistan, he killed more than two dozen people. He is neither proud of nor ashamed of the deaths, he says, that resulted from six flying missions, adding that he thought of those killed as “chess pieces” on a board. His candour may increase security fears around him.

5. Behind a pub

The Duke admits to losing his virginity to an “older lady” who “loved horses very much” during “a humiliating episode” in a field behind a pub. He writes: “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.”

6. Drugs

Prince Harry confesses to using cocaine as a teenager, smoking marijuana and later trying magic mushrooms at a party in the home of actor Courteney Cox. He writes: “Of course, I had been taking cocaine at that time. At someone’s house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line, and since then I had consumed some more …It wasn’t very fun, and it didn’t make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different.”



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