January 2005: Prince Harry goes to a disguised party on the theme “Indigenous and Colonial”.
Upon arriving, he is photographed by paparazzi in a Nazi military costume, including the swastika.
The tabloid
The Sun
publishes the photo on the front page under the title “Harry the Nazi”.
A few days later, faced with the scale of the scandal, the grandson of Elizabeth II has no choice but to apologize publicly.
"I'm so sorry if I shocked or made anyone feel uncomfortable.
It was a bad costume choice and I apologize for that,” he said in a statement.
The affair, which has become global, seriously shakes the reputation of the youngest of Charles and Diana, this turbulent prince whom the British people love so much.
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Since then, the years have passed but this controversy sticks to the skin of "Dirty Harry" who now wishes to restore the truth.
And above all to settle accounts with the Crown.
In
Spare,
his autobiography to be published on January 10 (
Le Suppléant,
published by Fayard in France), the husband of Meghan Markle returns to this incident, "one of the biggest mistakes of [his] life".
And although he takes his share of the blame, the Duke of Sussex says his big brother William and Kate Middleton weren't totally unfamiliar with this choice of disguise.
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According to information from
Page Six
, Harry originally hesitated between two suits: a pilot's uniform or a Nazi uniform.
“I phoned Willy and Kate, asked them what they thought.
Nazi uniform, they replied, ”wrote the Duke of Sussex, in the right pages of the book consulted by the American media.
After which, the young prince - 20 years old at the time - returned home for a fitting session.
“[Kate and William] both roared with laughter.
It was worse than Willy's leotard outfit!
Much more ridiculous!
Which, again, was the goal,” he recalls in his memoirs.
Indeed, Prince William also participated in this party, to which he arrived wearing a homemade lion costume.
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“For the first time, their relationship has really suffered”
These revelations are not entirely new.
In 2021, in
Royal War, Lies and Betrayal
, the famous historian Robert Lacey already recounted that Harry “hired his costume in agreement with his brother, the future king, who laughed all the way back to Highgrove”.
The one who was one of the editors of the
Sunday Times
, where he very seriously documented the actions of the royal family, also explained in his book that the scandal had ended up keeping the two brothers away.
“For the first time, their relationship really suffered and they barely spoke to each other”, confided a source close to the royal family to Robert Lacey, always quoted by
Page Six
.
"Harry didn't appreciate the fact that William got away with it so easily."
A favorable end for William – and which would have been desired by the royal family – the only one who will one day ascend the throne of England.
Harry, after all, is just... the spare.
In video, the trailer of the interview granted by prince Harry to ITV
