Inside Prince Harry and Prince William’s Biggest Fight Before Harry Left the U.K.

Giovana GelhorenSat, July 25, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC

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Prince William and Prince HarryCredit: Karwai Tang/WireImageThe Gist -

In Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare, he depicted a physical fight between him and his brother.

Harry’s decision to share the story become a real turning point in their years-long feud.

Harry and William have reportedly not spoken since the book was released on January 10, 2023.

Rumors about a feud between Prince Harry and Prince William cirulated for years before the former stepped down as a working royal. And while they were merely speculative at first, the brothers have since completely cut ties.

“Their relationship is at an all-time low,” a source told Vanity Fair in September 2025. “It’s as if something has pushed William even further away from the prospect of a reconciliation. He is adamant that he wants nothing to do with his brother.”

Among the accusations made by both sides over the years are what Harry chose to include in his tell-all memoir, Spare. In the book, which came out on January 10, 2023, Harry opened up about his life as a royal, including the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, his relationship with wife Meghan Markle and the feud with his brother. And while tension between the brothers were already public information, one scene depicting a fight that allegedly became physical took royal fans by surprise.

See more details about their reported altercation, and what it meant for their relationship, below.

Harry alleges a physical fight with William in Spare.

Prince William and Prince Harry in 2021, one year after Harry’s exit from royal dutiesCredit: Yui Mok - WPA Pool/Getty Images

In one key moment in Spare, Harry remembered William visiting his London home in 2019. Per Harry, William was livid with the situation surrounding Meghan, calling her “difficult”, “rude,” and “abrasive,” per The Guardian. Harry responded by saying that his brother was a “parrot [of] the press narrative.” Harry alleges that William then pushed him to the floor.

“He set down [a glass of] water, called me another name, then came at me,” Harry wrote in the memoir. “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.”

According to Harry, William headed for the door before looking back and apologizing. William also reportedly told Harry, “You don’t need to tell Meg about this.” “You mean that you attacked me?” Harry replied, to which William reportedly said, “I didn’t attack you, Harold.”

Per the memoir, Harry then proceeded to call his therapist and tried to keep the fight a secret from Meghan. When she noticed “scrapes and bruises” on his back, however, he came clean. “She was terribly sad,” Harry remembered.

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Harry’s confession was William’s last straw.

A few days before Spare was even released, sources close to William and his wife Kate Middleton were sharing their reactions to the memoir’s biggest bombshells. Kate Nicholl, author of The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown, told Page Six that the couple was “bracing themselves for something raw, something explosive,” but weren’t expecting such claims.

“William’s privately seething and devastated by what Harry has done,” Nicholl said. “And just cannot forgive Harry for the things that he’s written.”

Sources close to William also denied the altercation claims.

In addition to being “devastated” by the accusation, sources reportedly close to William and Kate also denied that their physical altercation even happened.

“It was a cheap shot [from Harry] to present such an argument,” a source said in William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, per The Mirror. “Tensions were running very high, and yes, there certainly were cross words exchanged that on reflection were regrettable, but the prince [William] is adamant there was no physical violence.”

William has still not forgiven his brother.

Prince William.Credit: WPA Pool/Getty Images

Most recently, Harry traveled back to the U.K. in July 2026 for the one-year kickoff event for the Invictus Games. While visiting, he reconnected with his father, King Charles, and his stepmother, Queen Camilla, as they enjoyed a private reunion alongside Meghan and their kids, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5.

Throughout it all, sources were adamant that William would not be joining the family affair. “William won’t be seeing his brother. I suspect he will make sure he’s miles away when Harry visits to avoid any awkward encounters,” a source told Vanity Fair. “Harry has tried to make contact repeatedly, but William won’t take his calls. He is not minded to a reconciliation at all, and the fact that his father is bending over backwards to make Harry’s visit happen has become the source of deep irritation for William.”

“William is known to hold a grudge, whereas Charles just wants peace,” a family friend compared. “They come to the Harry situation from different perspectives. Charles is of the view that one must forgive and move on. William won’t do that. Not yet and maybe never.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”