Prince Harry and Meghan Markle once had quite a fiery spat during which the duke was “cruel” to his wife, who gave him a cutting 10-word response.

Meghan Markle gave Prince Harry a brutal 10-word response following his “cruel outburst” in the early days of their relationship, according to the duke himself.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex started dating in 2016 and it wasn’t long before they had their first spat, just like any other couple.

Harry opened up about their first major argument in his memoir Spare, released in January last year.

The prince talked about how in December 2016, he had been “cruel” to his future wife during a particularly fiery spat.

The date had begun pleasantly with the duchess showing him how to roast a chicken while they both listened to James Taylor and Nina Simone and sipped wine but the atmosphere quickly changed after he “snapped” at her.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had a fiery spat in the early days of their relationsh

Harry wrote: “Maybe the wine went to my head. Maybe the weeks of battling the press had worn me down.

“For some reason, when the conversation took an unexpected turn, I became touchy. Then angry. Disproportionately, sloppily angry.

“Meg said something I took the wrong way. It was partly a cultural difference, partly a language barrier, but I was also just over-sensitive that night. I thought: Why’s she having a go at me? I snapped at her, spoke to her harshly, cruelly.”

He added: “As the words left my mouth, I could feel everything in the room come to a stop. The gravy stopped bubbling, the molecules of air stopped orbiting. Even Nina Simone seemed to pause. Meg walked out of the room, disappearing for a full fifteen minutes.”

The duke claimed that afterwards, he went upstairs to find Meghan, who sat in the bedroom and replied to him: “[I]would never stand for being spoken to like that”.

She also asked him a few challenging questions about where his anger had “come from”.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle began dating in 2016 (Image: Getty)

Harry wrote:”‘Where did you ever hear a man speak like that to a woman? Did you overhear adults speak that way when you were growing up?’ I cleared my throat, looked away. Yes.

“She wasn’t going to tolerate that kind of partner. Or co-parent. That kind of life. She wasn’t going to raise children in an atmosphere of anger or disrespect.

“She laid it all out, super-clear. We both knew my anger hadn’t been caused by anything to do with our conversation.”

Harry said that the disagreement with Meghan was the incident which led him to seek therapy.

He wrote: “It came from somewhere deep inside, somewhere that needed to be excavated, and it was obvious that I could use some help with the job.”