Prince Harry’s memoirs
As a young party prince, he attacked his bodyguard
Prince Harry in 2010
© Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images
In his memoirs, Prince Harry tells of a night in Paris in 2007 when, after a wild night of partying, he attacked his bodyguard and started hitting him. However, he reacted fairly calmly.
Then a scandalous party prince who hated the paparazzi and loved the nightlife, now a caring family man who still hates the paparazzi but prefers a walk on the beach to a visit to the club. Yes, Prince Harry, 38, has changed quite a bit over the years, and the desire for a serious relationship that he found with his current wife, Duchess Meghan, 41, was probably the decisive factor in his transformation.
Harry’s earlier escapades aren’t entirely out of mind though. The Briton, who emigrated to the USA, even goes into the wild times in his life in his memoirs “Spare”, telling of drug adventures and the scandal surrounding the swastika armband in 2005.
Prince Harry: The provocative party prince
For a while, Prince William’s younger brother, 40, was so out of control that parties alone were no longer enough for him. Harry needed the kick and got it through provocation.
On a trip to Paris in 2007, Harry let himself go so much that he even tangled with and physically assaulted his then-Metropolitan bodyguard, Bill Renshaw, aka Billy the Rock. Harry tells funny stories about his relationship with Billy in his book. He even saved the prince from a horde of paparazzi by hiding him in the trunk of his car.
“I loved him, but I was determined to hurt him”
The stay in Paris was intended to retrace the last journey of his mother, who died ten years earlier in a car accident while fleeing the paparazzi. Harry went to the tunnel and then turned night into day – his way of dealing with the trauma at the time. Then he attacked his bodyguard.
“As Billy the Rock escorted me back to the hotel, I tried to pick a fight with him. I would growl at him, swing on him, smack him on the head. He barely reacted. He just frowned like a very patient one Parent. I hit him again. I loved him, but I was determined to hurt him. He had seen me like this before. Once, maybe twice. I heard him say to another bodyguard, ‘He’s a blight tonight.’ ‘” is how Harry describes the evening in question. After that, Billy and the other bodyguard put Harry to bed, but he slipped out of the hotel unnoticed and walked along the Seine.
As of 2017, Bill Renshaw left the Metropolitan Police and instead works for the Rugby Football Union.
Sources used: dailymail.co.uk, “Spare” by Prince Harry