Telltales & tantrums - WILLS & HARRY'S LIFELONG RIVALRY

Long before Megxit, the brothers’ bickering was out of control

- Judy Kean

It seems that one of the saddest parts of the rift between royal siblings Prince William and Prince Harry is that brothers who were once so close now barely speak.

But were they ever really that close? Royal insiders say that while their unique shared experience as sons of the heir to the throne, and the tragic death of their mother Princess Diana, created a strong bond between the pair, they were not always the best pals people assumed them to be. Now a new book has shed some light on their childhood and how their different destinies have set them on paths that have veered off in separate directions.

Author Robert Jobson’s book William at 40: The Making of a Modern Monarch focuses on the older of the siblings in the year that he turns 40, but contains many details about his rocky relationship with his younger brother.

Robert says William’s destiny as a future king meant he got more attention from childhood and as a result, Harry felt overshadowed. But when he got older and understood the responsibility that William faced because he was the first born, he would play on that.

Robert tells how William and Harry were having an argument in the back of the car one day when six-year-old Harry snapped at his brother, then eight, “You’ll be king. I won’t – so I can do what I want!”