Prince Harry says he called his therapist after being physically attacked by his brother William following a heated argument, according to an extraordinary excerpt from his new book.
The Duke of Sussex is set to claim in his memoir, Spare, that his older sibling left him with visible injuries after a furious row over his wife Meghan Markle, in which Harry accused him of ‘parroting the press narrative’ about her.
The explosive incident, during which William reportedly called the Duchess ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’ is alleged to have taken place at Harry’s London home in 2019.
In section of the book, which doesn’t come out until next week, Harry claims immediately following the argument he called his therapist instead of his wife.
Prince Harry, pictured here doing exercises in a therapy session, claims he called his therapist after a physical bust-up with his brother William
The Duke of Sussex claims in his new book that he was ‘knocked to the floor’ by William during a row over his wife, Meghan Markle. Pictured: The brothers at the funeral procession of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II last year
According to the Guardian, which claims to have obtained a copy, Meghan later noticed the ‘scrapes and bruises’, leading to him coming clean about the bust-up with his brother.
It is not known how the outlet got a copy of the book, given the stringent security measures put in place by its publisher to prevent leaks.
In the extract Harry claims William ‘grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace and… knocked me to the floor’ during an extraordinary row at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace.
He said the argument came about when William wanted to talk about ‘the whole rolling catastrophe’ of their relationship, arriving at the cottage ‘piping hot’.
In the dramatic passage, the Duke says his brother was not acting rationally, with both men shouting over each other and exchanging insults as the argument escalated.
He said his brother ended up knocking him to the ground, leaving him with a visible injury after he landed on ‘the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me’.
Harry added that his brother urged him to fight back, but left when he refused to do so, before later coming back to apologise.
The passage claims that when William left again he urged Harry not to ‘tell Meg about this’ and saying ‘I didn’t attack you, Harold’.
Harry claims he first rang his therapist, before later telling his wife who ‘wasn’t that surprised, and wasn’t all that angry’.
Harry has previously spoken of going to therapy to process the trauma of his childhood, which included the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
The Duke praised EMDR – which stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing – for helping him deal with his past.
It is based on the principle that the mind can heal from trauma by using external stimuli to help the brain process traumatic experiences and facilitate healing.
Prince Harry, 36, was today seen closing his eyes and tapping his chest during a therapy session via videolink with Sanja Oakley, a UK-based psychotherapist, which aired on his Apple TV+ show.
The Duke of Sussex closes his eyes during a therapy session shown in an Apple TV documentary series
Appearing on The Me You Can’t See, Harry ‘processed his negative thoughts’ by crossing his arms and taking in a deep breath, before closing his eyes and slowly tapping each side of his chest.
He told Oprah: ‘EMDR is always something that I’ve wanted to try and that was one of the varieties of different forms of healing or curing that I was willing to experiment with.
‘And I never would have been open to that had I not put in the work and the therapy that I’ve done over the years.’
Devotees say simply moving your eyes from left to right between 25 and 30 times can diminish negative memories and, therefore, their impact on your wellbeing.
This, done repeatedly with a trained psychologist – up to 40 times in an hour session – can change your life immeasurably for the better, so experts claim.
While critics have dismissed it as pseudoscience, EMDR has a body of scientific research behind it that proves it to be effective for the treatment of severe trauma.
Not only is it available on the NHS, but training is compulsory for Ministry of Defence mental health personnel on the front line.
The claims made by Harry in his new memoir are likely to put further strain on the already frayed relationship between him and his family.
In the book he is set to claim that his father, King Charles, has pleaded for his warring sons not to make his ‘final years a misery’.
In one excerpt Harry recounts a meeting with his father and brother after Prince Philips funeral in April 2021, in which Charles stood between himself and the heir ‘looking up at our flushed faces’.
The book, which is being released next week is highly-anticipated, already making it to second place on the Amazon bestsellers list in the UK and USA from pre-sale orders alone.
It is reported the book will have to sell more than 1.7million copies for publisher Penguin Random House to break even after it gambled $20million on a ‘four-book’ deal with the Duke.
Harry has pledged some of the proceeds from the memoir will go to charity.
Before it is released a pair of TV interviews on ITV and CBS will be aired on Sunday, in which Harry will speak about the book and the claims made within.
