Charles told Diana ‘my work is done’ on the day of Prince Harry’s birth, Duke claims in book
‘Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare’: Charles told Diana ‘my work is done’ on the day of Prince Harry’s birth, claims the Duke in leaked extract of bombshell memoir ‘Spare’
- Prince Harry sensationally claims Charles called him the ‘spare’ to Diana
- Allegation is made in leaked extract of Duke’s upcoming autobiography
- The Guardian reports Harry was elaborating on the story behind book title
Prince Harry sensationally claims in his ‘explosive’ memoir that his father King Charles told his mother Princess Diana on the day that he was born: ‘Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare – my work is done.’
The extraordinary claim is reportedly made in the Duke of Sussex‘s upcoming autobiography, Spare, which is expected to be published next week and has been leaked to The Guardian.
The newspaper reports that King Charles’s son was elaborating on the story behind the book’s title when he recounted what the then-Prince of Wales said to Diana on the day of his birth.
Harry’s extraordinary book claims come after he risked deepening the feud within the Royal Family by accusing The Firm of ‘leaking and planting’ stories in the media, while claiming he wants his father and brother back, in trailers for interviews to promote his memoir.
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Diana and Charles leaving St Mary’s Hospital with newborn Harry in 1984
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Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort observe the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II as it is transferred from the gun carriage to the hearse at Wellington Arch following the State Funeral
It also comes after the Duke reportedly claimed he was physically attacked by his brother over the younger prince’s marriage to Meghan Markle.
In a leaked extract of his highly anticipated book to The Guardian, Harry alleged the confrontation took place at his London home in 2019 and had left him with a visible injury to his back after the Prince of Wales grabbed his brother by the collar and ripped his necklace before knocking him to the floor.
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The front cover of Harry’s upcoming memoir, Spare, which will be published next week
Harry further claimed William had called the American actress ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’ – comments which the younger brother said parroted ‘the press narrative’ about his wife.
According to The Guardian, the ‘extraordinary scene’ is ‘one of many in Spare’ which is due to be published on January 10.
The newspaper said it was able to obtain a copy of the book despite ‘stringent pre-launch security around the book’.
Its article goes on to say that, according to Harry, his elder brother had wanted to discuss ‘the whole rolling catastrophe’ of their relationship and struggles with the press. But when William arrived at Nottingham Cottage – where Harry was then living – in the grounds of Kensington Palace, the Prince of Wales was already ‘piping hot’.
‘After William complained about Meghan, Harry writes, Harry told him he was repeating the press narrative and that he expected better,’ The Guardian reports.
‘But William, Harry says, was not being rational, leading to the two men shouting over each other.
‘Harry then accused his brother of acting like an heir, unable to understand why his younger brother was not content to be a spare.’
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The brothers, according to Harry, had met to discuss ‘the whole rolling catastrophe’ of their relationship and struggles with the press when a screaming match ensued (Pictured: Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry leave the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service held at St Paul’s Cathedral on December 14, 2017)
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Prince Harry’s book is expected to double down on his attacks on the Royal Family. Pictured: Prince Harry on CBS News
Insults were then exchanged between the two men, before William claimed he was trying to help, claims which Harry found incredulous, and informed his brother of such, angering William.
So much so, Harry writes, the Prince of Wales swore and stepped forwards, scaring him.
He writes: ‘(William) called me another name, then came at me. 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.’
Harry writes that William urged him to hit back but he refused. Shortly afterwards though, the elder brother apologised.
William had then told his brother not to tell Meghan about the confrontation, resulting in Harry saying: ‘You mean that you attacked me?’, to which William responded: ‘I didn’t attack you, Harold.’
Harry said he did not immediately tell his wife but she had noticed ‘scrapes and bruises’ on his back.
The duke’s extraordinary book claims come after the release of a teaser trailer from an ITV interview in which Harry said he wants his father and brother back.
The interview, due to be released on Sunday, will be broadcast two days before Spare is published around the world.
In a series of clips from the duke’s ITV conversation, Harry tells presenter Tom Bradby: ‘It never needed to be this way’, and refers to ‘the leaking and the planting’ before adding: ‘I want a family, not an institution.’
He also says ‘they feel as though it is better to keep us somehow as the villains’ and ‘have shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile’, although it is unclear who he is referring to.
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In an extraordinary excerpt from his upcoming autobiography Spare, Harry recalls what he describes as a physical attack by his sibling, now the Prince of Wales, which he claims left him with visible injuries
Filmed in California where the duke now lives, ITV said Harry: The Interview will go into ‘unprecedented depth and detail’ about his life in and outside the royal family.
Mr Bradby, a former royal correspondent and current presenter of ITV News at Ten, is a friend of the Sussexes and previously interviewed them for a documentary about their 2019 Africa tour.
But in a separate interview with CBS News, set to air the same day, Harry also criticises Buckingham Palace over an alleged failure to defend him and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, before they stepped down as senior royals.
The duke also reveals to the US broadcaster that he would not return to the institution as a full-time royal.
Both CBS and ITV have released snippets of the duke’s conversations ahead of the full interviews being televised.
Speaking with CBS’s Anderson Cooper, Harry talks of the ‘betrayal’ by Buckingham Palace, telling the 60 Minutes programme: ‘Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately, there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife.
‘The family motto is ‘never complain, never explain’, but it’s just a motto.
‘They (Buckingham Palace) will feed or have a conversation with a correspondent, and that correspondent will literally be spoon-fed information and write the story, and at the bottom of it, they will say they have reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.
‘But the whole story is Buckingham Palace commenting.
‘So when we’re being told for the last six years, ‘we can’t put a statement out to protect you’, but you do it for other members of the family, there becomes a point when silence is betrayal.’
It comes after the duke claimed in his Netflix documentary that William broke a promise to him never to leak stories or brief against one another after witnessing the fallout of such actions in their father’s office.