Prince Harry appeared to take a swipe at his brother, Prince William, as he explained the reason for his rage before his wedding with Meghan Markle was his facial hair. In a wide-ranging interview with ITV’s Tom Bradley, the Duke of Sussex recalled his brother ordering him to get rid of his beard before his wedding day. Only “beard people” would understand his anger at William’s request that he shave his beard for his wedding day, Harry claimed.
The Duke described his beard as “a shield to my anxiety” that his brother rejected amid mounting public pressure. But the Queen allowed the younger brother to keep his bristles while William was ordered to shave off his beard during a military assignment in 2008.
That difference in treatment made William “competitive”, Harry claimed.
He said: “I think William found it hard that other people told him to shave it off, and yet here I was on my wedding day wearing military uniform, no longer in the military, um, but thinking as though I – believing as though I should shave it off before my wedding day.
“And I said ‘Well I don’t believe that Meghan’s gonna recognise me if she comes up the aisle and sees me beardless’.
Prince Harry continued: “I would feel very, very different without my beard, and that’s hard for people to understand who have never grown a beard, um, but hopefully those beard people out there will go: ‘Yeah, no, I fully get that, I can understand’.”
During the same interview, Mr Bradbury reveals it was required of Harry to seek permission from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
He said: “During the Harry claims he went to see his granny, the Queen, to ask, as required, for permission to keep his beard for his own wedding.
“She was amenable, William was not.
“There was then an argument, Harry says, between the two brothers that went on for a week and ended he claims with his brother ordering him, as the heir to the spare, to shave it off.”
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