Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William, the future King of England, have not been on good terms for awhile now. Many people may jump to the assumption that their rift started when Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle started, but according to royal historian Robert Lacey, that is not the case.

In Lacey’s 2020 book, “Battle of Brothers,” he explains that the rift between the brothers started back in 2005 when William helped Harry chose an outfit for a costume party, an outfit that Harry later regretted wearing. In Harry’s upcoming memoir, titled “Spare,” he explained that he was trying to decide whether to wear a pilot costume or a Nazi costume to a party with a “Native and Colonial” theme. He claims that both William and Kate Middleton told him to wear the Nazi costume and that they laughed uproariously upon seeing him in the costume.

Afterwards, when a picture of Harry in the costume was posted in The Sun, Harry received a lot of backlash, while his brother came out seeming like the good guy even though he was involved in choosing the costume.

Harry’s new book is titled “Spare” because it refers to a royal term where the first-born is the “heir” and the second born is the “spare” in case anything happens to the first-born. Harry’s book explains how being the “spare” has affected everything about his life. He even claims that he heard a story about the day he was born when his father, King Charles, told his mother, Princess Diana, “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare – my work is done.”

According to Lacey, ever since the costume incident in 2005, Harry felt “resentful and even alienated.” He also claims that it was William who would “coax” Harry to “errant and self-destructive ways.”

The rift between Harry and William only grew stronger after Harry married Meghan. In “Spare,” Harry gives a detailed account of a time he got into a fight with William in London. At the time, Harry and Meghan were still living in London. William visited their home, and when he arrived, according to Harry, William was “piping hot.” He called Meghan “difficult,” “rude,” and “abrasive.” 

Harry accused William’s words as “parrot[ing of] the press narrative.” That resulted in a yelling match between the two brothers in which Harry told William that he was acting like an heir and not even trying to understand how Harry felt as the spare.

Eventually, the argument got physical. Harry wrote that William “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.”

In an upcoming interview in which he’s promoting his new book, Harry claims that he would like to repair the relationship between himself and his father and brother. The claims in “Spare” are probably not going to make his family draw closer.

“Spare” is set to be released on January 10, 2023.