Prince Harry Revealed Prince William’s ‘Insensitive’ Reaction to His Anxiety: ‘Now He Was Teasing Me?’
Prince Harry revealed Prince William didn’t react kindly to his anxiety in Spare. What the Duke of Sussex claimed the Prince of Wales said in a cringe-worthy memoir anecdote involving a speech and agoraphobia.
Prince Harry claims Prince William teased him after he came close to fainting during a speech in ‘Spare’
Harry revisited an unpleasant experience during a royal engagement in his memoir, which dropped on Jan. 10. He shared that agoraphobia, which the Mayo Clinic definition describes as an anxiety disorder involving “fearing and avoiding places or situations that might cause panic and feelings of being trapped, helpless or embarrassed,” resulted in cutting remarks from William.
“I was an agoraphobe. Which was nearly impossible given my public role,” Harry wrote (via UsWeekly). “After one speech, which couldn’t be avoided or canceled, and during which I’d nearly fainted, Willy came up to me backstage,” he recalled. “Laughing, ‘Harold! Look at you! You’re drenched.’”
Harry didn’t understand William’s reaction to his anxiety because his brother witnessed his first panic attack
The Duke of Sussex, 38, continued. He confessed he “couldn’t fathom” William’s reaction to his anxiety. “Him of all people,” Harry wrote of his older brother. The reason he didn’t understand William’s reaction? Harry claimed the father of three had been there for his “very first panic attack.”
Harry was with William and Kate Middleton, “driving out to a polo match in Gloucestershire, in their Range Rover.”
“I was in the back and Willy peered at me in the rearview. He saw me sweating, red-faced,” Harry recalled. “‘You all right, Harold?’ No, I wasn’t. It was a trip of several hours and every few miles I wanted to ask him to pull over so I could jump out and try to catch my breath.”
Harry blamed himself and William: ‘Both us should’ve known better’
The Duke of Sussex went on, saying he blamed not only William but also himself.
“I was at fault too,” Harry wrote in Spare. “Both of us should’ve known better, should’ve recognized my crumbling emotional and mental states for what they were, because we’d just started to discuss the launching of a public campaign to raise awareness around mental health.”
Harry, along with his brother and sister-in-law, founded Heads Together in 2016. It brought together various mental health charities in a nationwide campaign to “end stigma around mental health,” per the royal family’s official website.
“We have seen time and time again that shattering stigma on mental health starts with simple conversations,” the trio were quoted as saying at the time.
Harry also claimed in Spare that William worried therapy had changed him for the worse. He’d become a “stranger” to his older brother, Harry explained. William, he wrote, had become so concerned, he wanted to attend a joint session because he thought therapy had “brainwashed” Harry.
Prince Harry says ‘competition’ has ‘always been’ part of his relationship with Prince William
In a promotional interview around the time of his book’s release, Harry discussed the dynamic between him and William. He told Good Morning America co-host, Michael Strahan, competition has “always” been part of their relationship when discussing why he described William as his “beloved brother and archnemesis” in Spare.
“There has always been this competition between us, weirdly,” Harry said of him and William. “I think it really plays into, or is always played by, the heir [and] spare [labels],” he explained, referencing their birth order and the line of succession.
