Prince William caused a social media stir on Sunday as he debuted a fresh face of summer stubble in a video message thanking Britain's Olympic athletes ahead of the closing ceremony of the Paris Games alongside Princess Kate.
It marked the first time that the prince has not appeared clean shaven since he sported a full-beard in the winter of 2008, after which he was required to shave it off owing to British Army regulations, something Prince Harry later claimed sparked jealousy between the two brothers.
The relationship between William and Harry has become the focus of increased attention and speculation since Harry's split from the monarchy in 2020 and subsequent move to the U.S. with Meghan Markle.
In interviews and media projects since then, the prince has said that relations between himself and William broke down before he and Meghan stepped away from their royal roles, and that the brothers had in fact never been as close as the public had been led to believe.
Throughout his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry recounted instances where William appeared to resent his younger brother for his freedom and lesser royal burden as the "spare" instead of the "heir" to the throne.
William did not respond publicly to his brother's book or the claims made within it.
One of example of William's apparent envy that Harry provided his readers with centered around his facial hair.
Here, Newsweek takes a look at everything Harry said about the brothers' beard tension.
'Shave it Off'
In his memoir, Harry recounted for readers the issue surrounding his beard as it related to his royal wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018.
Harry grew out his beard when he left the British Army in 2015. At the time, army regulations stated that serving officers could not appear in uniform wearing a beard unless given exemption by their commanding officer under extenuating circumstances.
Though Harry had left the army as a soldier he maintained honorary roles, primarily as Captain General Royal Marines, to which he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017.
When Harry proposed to Meghan in the same year and with the wedding day approaching, he told readers that he had asked his grandmother to grant him permission to keep his beard for the big day as he was intending on wearing the frock coat uniform of the Household Cavalry.
As sovereign, Elizabeth was titular head of the British Armed Forces and therefore she had the power to grant his request.
The prince said he wanted to do this as his beard acted almost as a "security blanket" for him and that Meghan had never seen him without it. When the monarch granted her permission though, it angered Harry's brother.
"When I informed him that his opinion didn't really matter, since I'd already gone to granny and got the green light, he became livid," Harry wrote.
"He raised his voice, 'You went to ask her!' 'Yes.' 'And what did granny say?' 'She said keep the beard.'
"'You put her in an uncomfortable position, Harold! She had no choice but to say yes.'" William said, according to Spare.
"No choice? She's the queen!," Harry said of his own response. "If she didn't want me to have a beard I think she can speak for herself. But Willy always thought granny had a soft spot for me, that she indulged me while holding him to an impossibly high standard. Because...Heir, Spare, etc. It irked him. The argument went on, in person, on the phone, for more than a week. He wouldn't let it go."
Harry went on to add that at one point William "ordered" him to shave his beard off, something he flatly refused to do at his brother's request.
"'I'm telling you, shave it off,'" William allegedly told Harry.
"'For the love of God, Willy, why does this matter so much to you?'
"'Because I wasn't allowed to keep my beard.'"
Harry then told readers that William had been ordered to shave the beard that he had grown in 2008 off before he joined British Army maneuvers the following year.
"After he'd come back from an assignment with Special Forces, Willy was sporting a full beard, and someone told him to be a good boy, run along and shave it. He hated the idea of me enjoying a perk he'd been denied," Harry wrote.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III and Queen Camilla, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
