How Prince Harry witnessed Charles escape death

As a boy, Prince Harry witnessed another polo player save King Charles III's life – and that memory prompted him to intervene in a dramatic way later in life.

The Duke of Sussex described in his book Spare part how his father appeared to have fallen asleep after being thrown from his horse while playing the sport popular with successive generations of kings.

In fact, the king had swallowed his tongue and another player had to watch his fight before his airways were cleared and he could breathe again.

Harry recalled the incident as he was considering whether to take the opportunity to vacation in Las Vegas with his men, despite concerns that it might be “risky.”

“I had an experience recently that made me realize that they were not entirely wrong and that Carpe Diem was more than just empty words,” he wrote.

“While I was playing polo in Brazil that spring to raise money for Sentebale (Harry's African charity for young people in Lesotho and Botswana), I saw a player fall heavily from his horse.

“As a boy I had seen Pa fall in the same way, the horse giving way and the ground hitting and swallowing him at the same time.

“I remember thinking, 'Why is Pa snoring?' And then someone shouted, 'He's swallowed his tongue!'”

“One player, reacting quickly, jumped off his horse and saved Pa's life. When I remembered that moment, I had unconsciously done the same thing: I jumped off my horse, ran to the man and ripped out his tongue.”

King Charles later described his near-death experience in a 2001 television interview with British presenters Ant and Dec: “I was trying too hard and had to turn the pony around really quickly and the next thing I knew the pony came sideways and I must have landed full force on my head.”

“Anyway, it completely knocked me out and I was eventually taken to the hospital where I finally woke up.”

Pointing at Harry, he said: “This person here told me later that he thought when I was lying on the floor he said, 'Daddy is just snoring,' he said.

“And there I was, busy swallowing my tongue, and I died quietly! That was the last time I played with them. They tried to kill me so they could run away with my ponies,” he joked.

The drama occurred just four years after Harry and William lost their mother in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997.

At the time of the polo accident in August 2001, CBS quoted spokesman Patrick Harrison as saying: “He was unconscious for a very short time, was taken to hospital and is now being transferred to Cheltenham General Hospital where he will remain overnight as a precaution.”

However, it was not the king's first polo accident, as he had already suffered two fractures in his right arm in 1990.

In Spare, Harry described how such injuries required Charles to do headstands to straighten his back.

“These exercises, prescribed by his physical therapist,” he wrote, “were the only effective remedy for the constant pain in Dad's neck and back.”

“Mostly old polo injuries. He sustained them every day, wearing only boxer shorts, leaning against a door or hanging from a pole like a skilled acrobat.

“If you put your little finger on the doorknob, you would hear it begging from the other side: No! No! Don't open it! Please, God, don't open it!”

Jack Royston is Newsweekis the chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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