He was bristling with jealousy! That’s the claim Prince Harry made about his brother William – in an extraordinary row about BEARDS…

Most weddings suffer from a little ‘pre-match tension’ and there was certainly plenty of that in the run up to Harry and Meghan’s fairytale ceremony in 2018.

There were cross words over bridesmaid dresses and tiaras. There was uncertainty over whether or not the father of the bride, Thomas Markle would be well enough to come.

In the event, he wasn’t and Prince Charles walked Meghan down the aisle at St George’s Chapel.

But one of the strangest disputes of all must surely have been the row over whether or not the groom was allowed to wear a beard – according, at least, to Prince Harry in his best selling memoir, Spare.

In Harry’s telling of the story, his older brother went so far as to try and ban his bristles, telling Harry they were not appropriate

A clean shaven Prince William is followed by his younger and defiantly bearded brother on his wedding day

Prince Harry reveals an argument about his beard in his controversial memoir, Spare

‘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,’ explains Harry in the book.

‘Beards were forbidden in the British Army.’

In the memoir, ghost-written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author JR Moehringer, Harry says he was driven to ask his grandmother, the late Queen, for permission in person, explaining that the beard made him feel calmer.

‘Yes, she said, you may keep your beard,’ writes Harry. ‘But then I explained it to my brother and he… bristled?

‘Not the done thing, he said. Military rules, so forth.’

Harry says he gave his older brother ‘a quick history lesson’ with the help of Google showing William images of Royal ancestors who were bearded and uniformed, such as Edward VII and George V.

George V wore a beard in uniform – and at the altar, as Prince Harry explains

But when when Harry played his trump card and explained he had already been granted permission by their grandmother to keep the facial hair, William ‘became livid’.

Harry reports his brother saying: ‘You put her in an uncomfortable position, Harold! She had no choice but to say yes.’

According to Harry adds that William ‘wouldn’t let it go’ and that the argument continued ‘in person, on the phone, for more than a week’.

It culminated, according to Harry, with William ordering him to shave his beard off.

Harry says he asked why on earth it mattered, only to get this answer: 

‘Because I wasn’t allowed to keep my beard.’

A bearded Prince William at Sandringham in 2008 shortly after he had just completed his Special Forces training

The smiling  brothers were beardless as they walked into Westminster Abbey on Prince William’s wedding day in 2011

Princess William and Kate wave to the crowds after their wedding service at Westminster Abbey in 2011

Harry concludes: ‘Ah, there it was. 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.’

William, it should be said has never commented on the claims – or given his side of the story.