Prince William unrecognisable as old facial hair pic goes viral after ‘beardgate’ claims

On Feb 1, 2023

A TikTok video showing Prince William with a bushy beard has gone viral, just weeks after Prince Harry claimed his brother was jealous he got to keep his ginger facial hair.

Images of William taken on Christmas Day at Queen Elizabeth II’s Sandringham estate in 2008 show the dark beard draped across his youthful face, with younger users of the social media site shocked at the now-vintage sight.

William grew the beard whilst with the British Royal Navy in Barbados in December 2008, but was allegedly asked to shave it off before started with the RAF in January 2009.

“He’s honestly still good looking – just needs to shave his head and get that beard back!” one person replied to the video that contained the tongue in cheek quote ‘Prince William is ugly’.

William grew the beard whilst with the British Royal Navy in Barbados in 2008
(Image: Getty Images)

“Handsome Prince,” wrote another user.

Prince Harry had recounted in his bombshell memoir Spare how he had to ask permission to keep his beard for his marriage to Meghan Markle in 2018.

“A beard was thought by some to be a clear violation of protocol and long-standing norms, especially since I was getting married in my Army uniform,” he wrote. “Beards were forbidden in the British Army. But I was no longer in the Army and I desperately wanted to hang on to something that had become an effective check on my anxiety.”

He continued: “I explained all this to Granny, and she said she understood. Plus, her own husband liked to rock a bit of scruff now and then. ‘Yes, she said, you may keep your beard.’”

Harry claimed his brother was jealous he got to keep his ginger facial hair
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

He then claimed that William “ordered him” to get rid of the facial hair.

“At one point he actually ordered me, as the Heir speaking to the Spare, to shave,” Harry wrote.

“‘I’m telling you, shave it off,’” the Prince claims was William’s response.

“‘For the love of God, Willy, why does this matter so much to you?’

“‘Because I wasn’t allowed to keep my beard,’” William said.

“Ah—there it was,” Harry wrote. “After he’d (William) come back from an assignment with Special Forces, Willy was sporting a full beard, and someone told him to be a good boy, run along and shave it. He hated the idea of me enjoying a perk he’d been denied.”