Prince William and Prince Harry are all-but estranged after growing apart – and one topic that once divided the warring brothers appears to be facial hair.
Younger brother Harry, 40, has proudly worn a full beard for years, while eldest William, 42, has maintained a clean-shaven image, up until now. The dad-of-three unveiled his new look over the summer when he congratulated Team GB athletes amid the Olympic Games closing ceremony in a video for social media alongside wife Kate.
It caused a stir with gushing fans, and it appears William prefers his new look too. He chose to keep his stubble for his four-day visit to South Africa, where he hosted the Earthshot Prize Awards. Quizzed by reporters on his new rugged appearance, William revealed that not everyone in the household was best pleased.
“Well Charlotte didn’t like it the first time. I got floods of tears, so I had to shave it off. And then I grew it back. I convinced her it was going to be OK!” he said. But in Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare, the Duke claimed that his older brother had instructed him to shave his beard for his 2018 wedding day to Meghan Markle, and accused him of being jealous. The alleged disagreement was later referred to as #beardgate on social media.
Harry claimed to have requested permission from the late Queen to keep his beard for the big day, despite being dressed in military uniform, and she gave him the green light. Though the same privilege was not afforded to William on his big day with Kate in 2011.
Harry told ITV’s Tom Bradby: “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, but thinking as though I – believing as though I should shave it off before my wedding day.”
Meanwile, the Duke of Sussex wrote in his book: “And yet I now dared to make another ask – Granny, please, may I, for my wedding, keep my beard? Not a small ask either. A beard was thought by some to be a clear violation of protocol and long-standing norms, especially since I was getting married in my Army uniform. Beards were forbidden in the British Army.”
