Over the past 4 years, the brotherly relationship between Prince Harry and Prince William has come under increased public attention with the publication of Harry’s book Reserve a 2023 memoir that paints a stark picture of the brothers’ complex relationship.
Harry stated that while writing and promoting his book, he gained a brand new perspective on his relationships and life events. Many apparitions in Reserve he fought against established narratives about his life story, considered one of the more surprising of which was the claim that he and William were never as close in childhood or maturity because the palace and media portrayed.
Still, in an interview promoting the book, he revealed that as a father he now understands William’s past behavior, seeing the brothers’ dynamic mirrored in his own two children: Prince Archie (born 2019) and Princess Lilibet (born 2021). .
Here, Newsweek looks at what Harry says he learned about his childhood through his children.
‘Now I understand’
I used to be talking to Tom Bradby for the ITV network on the time Reserveafter the prince was fired, he was asked about his claim that William told him to act as in the event that they didn’t know one another once they were each students at Eton College. Harry joined the college in 1998, a yr after Princess Diana’s death. He was 13 and William was 16.
Harry described their relationship on the time as “love, but also separation.”
“I talk about the relationship between William and me at Eton and how he didn’t really want to know me,” he said. “You know how little brother sucks. It’s like, ‘Come on, just like you left me in Ludgrove.’ [School] and now I’m at Eton and I say, hey, we’re at the same school now, let’s go. He didn’t want anything to do with me. And it hurt then.”
Now, as a father of two young children, the prince says he understands this dynamic higher, even though it stays a painful memory.
“The gap between me and William is very similar to the gap between Archie and Lili,” he told Bradby.
“And to see Lili obsessing over Archie and Archie, saying, ‘No, no Lili, I need my space, I need my space,’ now I understand.”
“I understand how a younger sibling could be irritating to an older one. But I didn’t know it for the time being. I didn’t really understand it, I didn’t know it.”
Family today
Archie will rejoice his fifth birthday on May 6, and since Harry and his wife Meghan Markle separated from the monarchy in 2020, the couple has kept each of their children largely out of the general public eye.
Although he painted a critical portrait of his brother in his memoir, and despite reportedly ongoing tension between the pair, Harry maintained that his book was not written with the intention of harming his relations and that he “always loved my brother.” “
William has not commented on Harry’s book or the claims it contains.
The last time the brothers attended a public event together was the coronation of their father, King Charles III, in May 2023.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweekroyal reporter based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and keep reading his stories Newsweek‘S Royal Facebook page.
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