Prince Harry and William’s royal rift ‘started 15 years ago after Nazi costume party row’
PRINCE Harry and William's royal rift started 15 years ago after the younger brother was pictured in a Nazi costume, a bombshell book has claimed.
Harry reportedly felt "resentful" after being criticised for his costume while his older brother, who helped choose the outfit, was not.
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The siblings went to Maud's Cotswold Costumes in January 2005 where William chose an animal outfit and Harry chose a khaki-coloured uniform.
The Duke was later photographed wearing the uniform complete with a swastika armband, causing "public outrage," according to royal biographer Robert Lacey.
He claims in Battle of Brothers, , that the brothers "laughed all the way back" from the store, but that it was Harry who received all the negative attention.
"It made Harry feel resentful and even alienated," Lacey writes.
"For the first time, their relationship really suffered and they barely spoke. Harry resented the fact that William got away so lightly."
Battle of Brothers also claims…
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- Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton treated each other with ‘mutual respect’
- Prince Harry had a ‘classic explosion’ after butting heads with Prince William
- William was so angry at Prince Harry over how he handled Megxit that he ‘unbrothered’ him
- Palace insiders thought Meghan’s ITV Africa interview was ‘miserably self-indulgent’
Of the incident, Lacey says: "He apologised, but there was public outrage.
"Many observers, however, missed the point: obviously the 20-year-old Harry wasn't really a neo-Nazi, as one Labour MP alleged.
"The lad was naughty, not a Nazi. Most clearly of all, we know that Harry chose his costume in conjunction with his elder brother — the future King William V, then 22, who had laughed all the way back to Highgrove with the younger sibling he was supposed to be mentoring — and then onwards to the party together."
ROYAL RIFT
Harry and William's feud has been laid bare over the past two years, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's exit from the Royal Family earlier this year pushing their relationship to breaking point.
William was said to be furious with Harry for "damaging the Royal Family's reputation" by posting his Megxit plan online.
Sources say William was also stunned at Harry’s decision to throw away his duty and service to the crown, and furious that the Queen had been backed into a corner.
Tensions were also said to be inflamed between the brothers' wives, with Meghan Markle allegedly accusing Kate Middleton of not supporting her in the “dark days” of her pregnancy.
Things reportedly came to a head during one of the Sussex's final engagements, a Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey.
The writers of Harry and Meghan's biography, Finding Freedom, wrote: "Although Meghan tried to make eye contact with Kate, the duchess barely acknowledged her."
'LONG-TERM FEUD'
Lacey, however, claims that the "fundamental conflict" was between Harry, 36, and William, 38, as they had "never hesitated to tell each other exactly what they thought and felt".
And while it was claimed Kate Middleton and Meghan treated each other with "mutual respect" - it was Prince Harry and William who would "never hesitate" to argue.
Lacey suggests the Nazi party row is proof that Meghan was "not the original factor in Prince Harry's decision to get shot of the royal family in January 2020".
He adds that Harry "already had very solid reasons to get shot of the rest of us and our smiling assumptions of the inferior — and actually rather demeaning — role that he should be grateful to play."
In the book, Mr Lacey also claims the boys' nanny Barbara Barnes acted as a surrogate mother due to Diana's health concerns and humanitarian commitments, with Ms Barnes teaching them to walk, talk and read.
She was later dismissed without being allowed to farewell the young princes.
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Mr Lacey writes: "Following the death of Diana in 1997, people remarked on how well the two young princes reacted to the unjust and unexpected removal of a mother figure from their lives - surprised, bewildered and distraught though they were.
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"In fact, ten years earlier, they'd had a little practice."
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the claims.
