Prince William’s new vacation beard, displayed in a short clip to mark the closing of the Olympics, is being seen by friends as a “new installment of the beard wars” with Prince Harry.
One friend of William’s told The Daily Beast: “It was a slight surprise to see William do a public video with the beard. It’s an unexpected new installment of the beard wars.”
The phrase refers to the bad-tempered argument about Harry’s beard between William and Harry that fed into the collapse of their relationship in the tense run-up to Harry’s wedding.
In his memoir, Spare, Harry explained how he first grew his beard while on an expedition in the South Pole and had come to rely on it as a “Freudian security blanket,” saying it made him feel “calmer.”
Harry wrote that he asked his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who was reputedly not overly keen on beards, for permission to keep it for his wedding to Meghan Markle, and that she “understood.”
But he said that when he told his brother, William “bristled” and said it was inconsistent with military rules—relevant as he was getting married in uniform—and precedent.
Harry hit back, citing historical examples of bearded royals including King Edward VII and George V, but William still said it wasn’t appropriate.
Harry then said, “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. He raised his voice.”
William accused Harry of putting Elizabeth “in an uncomfortable position,” saying she had “no choice but to say yes.”
Harry said the argument “went on, in person, on the phone, for more than a week.”
Harry wrote: “At one point he actually ordered me, as the Heir speaking to the Spare, to shave.”
Harry claims that William ultimately blurted out what Harry saw as the real reason for his opposition to Harry’s facial hair: that William had come back from one assignment with the special forces “sporting a full beard, and somebody 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.”
Friends of William have long disputed Harry’s characterization of many events in his book but point out that William is in no position to publicly refute Harry’s claims.
The “beard wars” are no different. One source, a former courtier who worked in the palace at the time of Harry and Meghan’s wedding, told The Daily Beast: “What the courtiers got so annoyed about with Harry is that over and over again he approached his grandmother personally to get special treatment and then he would turn around and say, ‘Well, Granny said so, so there.’ He was no great respecter of the line between monarch and grandmother, between the institutional and the personal.
“The beard was a case in point. It was a ridiculous argument but ultimately, William was right, frankly; he shouldn’t have gone and put his grandmother in the position. That was why after the split, people went to great efforts to block him from seeing her, because they were terrified he would wheedle concessions out of her.”
A military source told The Daily Beast: “The point about the beard at the wedding is that serving members of the armed forces were not allowed to wear beards at that time. It’s a rule that goes back to gas masks. They wouldn’t seal properly on the face if you were not clean shaven. He went to granny and got special permission. William was completely right.”
A senior publicist who has previously worked with the royal family told The Daily Beast: “William and Kate are always very keen to present themselves as normal, and normal guys, when they go on holiday, don’t shave for a week or two. Their whole brand is about being normal, being just like us, so coming out in a craggy beard and a polo shirt while on holiday is much smarter than putting on a suit and tie. They have perfected normal as brand image.”
Duncan Larcombe, former royal editor at The Sun, told The Daily Beast: “I actually had a conversation with William about his beard once. After Sandhurst, he spent a period of time with each of the services, including some time with the Navy, and it was during that time that he availed of the luxury of growing a beard because in the Navy you were allowed them.
“I grew a beard at the same time but William had to shave his off because of the wedding at which he was wearing uniform. I was talking to him on Prince Edward Island and he complimented me on my beard and said, ‘I loved having my beard, I really enjoyed the look.’ So I am not surprised he has grown it back. He might go the whole hog and grow a Prince Michael.”
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