Prince Harry got into a heated dispute with his uncle, Prince Andrew in which “punches were thrown” before stepping back from his royal duties and moving to the US, a new book has alleged. The Duke of Sussex got into a physical altercation with the Duke of York at a family gathering in 2013, author Andrew Lownie claimed in Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York. In a new extract from the book, which is being serialised by the Daily Mail, Lownie described Prince Andrew’s relationship with Harry and William as “problematic”.
Tensions between the Duke and his youngest nephew reached boiling point after Harry became aware of “something Andrew said behind [his] back”, the book suggests, with the exchange leaving his uncle “with a bloody nose”. While the incident allegedly happened more than a decade ago, Lownie said the relationship between the Duke of York and Prince Harry had not improved in the intervening years – with Andrew reportedly accusing Harry of going “bonkers” after meeting Meghan Markle and warning him that his marriage would “not last more than a month”.
The last decade has been one of severe reputational damage to Andrew, whose connection to the disgraced financier and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was amplified by a disastrous Newsnight interview released in 2019.
Mr Lownie’s new account appears show tensions similarly mounting behind the scenes – with Andrew also appearing to alienate Harry’s brother, the Prince of Wales, including through alleged rude remarks about Princess Kate.
“William has long worked behind the scenes to evict his uncle from the Royal Lodge, the home he occupies in Windsor Great Park,” the royal expert wrote. “He thinks Andrew is abusing the property and his privilege there.”
The Duke has been facing the threat of eviction from the 30-room property since King Charles cut his allowance last year – although he has managed to hang on in the short-term, thanks to a mystery financial backer.
While William and Harry may be united in their dislike of the Duke of York, the rift between the warring brothers has shown no sign of letting up since Harry published his tell-all memoir Spare in 2022.
The autobiography revealed, among other things, details of a physical fight between the two princes, with William allegedly shoving Harry to the floor after confronting him over Meghan’s “rude”, “abrasive” and “difficult” behaviour.
He recounted that his brother had urged him to hit back, which he refused to do, before “coming at me” and knocking him onto a dog bowl which cracked under his back.
While the book also recounted William apologising for the incident, Harry and Meghan’s much-publicised ‘Megxit’, seeing them step back from royal duties and move to the US, happened just months after the altercation.