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Prince Harry Says the Prince William ‘Best Man Reports’ Were a ‘Bare-Faced Lie’

The royal spare is speaking his truth

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Prince Harry Smiling at Older Brother Prince William CAT2
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For years, royal fans believed that Prince Harry, 39, and Prince William, 41, were each other’s best men at their weddings. But in his bombshell memoir Spare, which hit bookstore shelves in January 2023, the Duke of Sussex finally set the record straight. 

In a passage taken from Spare (reposted by Buzzfeed News), Prince Harry shared that the palace made up the “bare-faced lie.” The reason? The public “expected [it].” 

Instead, Prince William’s close friends, James and Thomas, were his best men. And when it came time for the Duke of Sussex to tie the knot with Meghan Markle, his best man was his “old mate Charlie.”

Prince Harry with Older Brother Prince William CAT
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Prince Harry also explained why his older brother didn’t want him to be his best man. He wrote, “In truth, Willy didn’t want me giving a best-man speech. He didn't think it safe to hand me a live mic and put me in a position to go off script. I might say something wildly inappropriate. He wasn’t wrong.” Well, at least there were no hard feelings.  

Speaking of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding, Prince Harry also addressed the rumors surrounding the Princess of Wales’s engagement ring. Multiple reports claimed that the Duke of Sussex gifted his brother the ring once he learned their relationship was headed toward marriage. But, the royal spare debunked the statements, calling the rumors “absolute rubbish.”

“The papers published florid stories about the moment I realized Willy and Kate were well matched, the moment I appreciated the depth of their love and thus decided to gift Willy the ring I’d inherited from Mummy, the legendary sapphire, a tender moment between brothers, a bonding moment for all three of us, and absolute rubbish: none of it ever happened,” the duke wrote in the book. 

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Glad to hear the truth, Prince Harry. 


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Assistant Editor, News And Entertainment

Karelle McKay is the Assistant Editor of News and Entertainment at PureWow. Before she started writing about all things pop culture, she was a literal couch potato who loved...