Prince Harry used to taunt his older brother during blazing boyhood rows, telling him: ‘It’s all right for you, you’ll be King one day and I won’t – so I can do what I want.’
The ‘extraordinary’ exchange was revealed today by the royals’ former protection officer, Ken Wharfe, amid the explosive fallout of the Duke of Sussex’s bombshell autobiography.
In his controversial tell-all book Spare, which was leaked ahead of publication next week and also put on sale early in Spain, Harry lobbed fresh ‘truth bombs’ at his family – from accusations his brother assaulted him in a row over Meghan to claims that William and their father Charles confronted him after Prince Philip’s funeral ‘looking for a fight’.
But today, Mr Wharfe revealed how Prince Harry knew from the age of ‘six or seven’ that he was always going to ‘play second fiddle’ to his older brother, William – and even bragged to his sibling that he could do ‘what I want’ as he would not be King.
Princes Harry and William used to have blazing rows as young boys. They are pictured in their uniforms for Harry’s first day at school at Wetherby School, Notting Hill, in 1989, accompanied by their late mother, Princess Diana, left
‘When they were young princes, fighting each other at Kensington Palace, Harry was always the popular guy. He was the one who was referred to as “the magician, the entertainer”,’ Mr Wharfe told Sky News.
‘Both Diana and his father acknowledged that. I think William, at that time, was rather jealous of his younger brother’s popularity.
‘To say that they knew nothing of who they were was, of course, fiction. They knew exactly who they were. And Harry always knew he was going to play second fiddle to his brother in later life.’
The retired royal body guard described an ‘extraordinary conversation’ between the two rival princes, on a weekend car journey to Highgrove.
Harry, aged about ‘six or seven’ at the time, had been arguing with his brother in the back of the car, driven by their mother Princess Diana, while a nanny tried to ‘referee’ the clash, Mr Wharfe claimed.
Meghan, Harry, William and Kate watching a fly-past to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force in 2018
Despite clashes as young boys, the brothers had been close. But relations have crumbled since Harry’s explosive autobiography and recent docu-series on Netflix. The pair are pictured in 1991 with mother Diana in Ontario, Canada
Former royal protection officer Ken Wharfe described an ‘extraordinary conversation’ between the two young princes, when Harry was about six of seven and taunted his brother for being the future King. Mr Wharfe, pictured right with Princess Diana
‘Suddenly, when there was peace and quiet Harry leant across and said to William: “It’s all right for you, you’ll be King one day and I won’t. Therefore, I can do what I want”,’ Mr Wharfe said.
‘That was 30-odd years ago and that is exactly now what he is doing.’
News of the clash comes Prince Harry was blasted by ‘appalled’ royal experts after leaked copies of his memoir revealed further jaw-dropping attacks by the Duke of Sussex on the Royal Family.
The prince, who quit as a working royal and moved to California with Meghan in a quest for greater privacy, recalls in excruciating detail family rows and intimate conversations.
He casts his brother as his ‘arch-nemesis’ and Charles as an emotionally-stunted and ineffectual ‘old man’, wrote that he feared Queen Consort Camilla would become a ‘wicked stepmother’, and revealed his father’s medical ailments and the fact the King still carries around his favourite teddy bear.
The late Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter called Harry’s autobiography ‘a load of balderdash’ and ‘spiteful’ – while ITV presenter Lorraine Kelly admitted her ‘toes will never be uncurled’ after the Duke revealed that he lost his virginity to a cougar in a field outside a pub when he was 17.
Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare will be hitting UK shelves next week, with some stores opening at midnight
Prince Harry has also faced a backlash from military veterans for breaking an ‘unwritten rule’ after claiming to have killed 25 Taliban fighters while in Afghanistan.
The revelation has left a sour taste in the mouths of his former comrades, after the Duke of Sussex wrote he had neither pride nor regret about firing at the extremists – and admitted that in the midst of battle he thought of his targets not as ‘people’ but as ‘chess pieces’ that had been removed from the board.
Ex-Army chief Colonel Richard Kemp called Harry’s comments ‘ill-judged’ and said soldiers are not trained to regard their targets as ‘subhuman’ – while former National Security Adviser Lord Darroch claimed he would have cautioned the Duke from disclosing his kill count.
Mr Wharfe told Sky News said the Prince’s autobiography was ‘already causing huge problems’ ahead of its UK publication next week.
‘I find that rather sad because I think, deep down, he didn’t really want to leave the Royal Family,’ he added.
‘But I think any chance of coming back to the UK as an operational member of the British Royal Family are long gone.’
Buckingham Palace has yet to respond to Harry’s book, which is set to hit shops from Tuesday, two days after his interview with ITV on Sunday evening, at 9pm.
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