Paul Burrell, Princess Diana’s former butler, believes that Prince Harry’s current behaviour boils down to him feeling less important than his older brother, Prince William.
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‘He’s going to be King one day’
Talking to The Sun, Burrell relates an incident demonstrating that the young Princes had a particular dynamic, a rivalry from the earliest of ages.
According to the butler, Prince William was shown favouritism by their nanny by giving him an extra sausage at breakfast. This apparently outraged a young Prince Harry.
Burrell claims:
And Harry would look at his plate and say, how come he gets three? And I only get two.
The nanny would then proceed to explain that Prince William needed more food because ‘he’s going to be King one day’.
According to Burrell, Prince Harry always had to contend with being in Prince William’s shadow. But the young Prince would ‘suck it up’ even when it happened in his own home.
Lashing out
Despite the deep bond the boys had in their childhood, the Duke of Sussex could harbour a strong resentment towards his brother, per Burrell. Perhaps, this explains why the Prince of Wales and his wife, Kate Middleton, have borne the brunt of most of Prince Harry’s accusations in Spare.
But he also harbours resentment towards the Royal Family institution for always putting Prince William first. This is a topic he touched on in his Netflixdocuseries, Harry & Meghan.
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Burrell believes:
He’s clearly hurt and angry at being ‘the spare’, and so he’s lashing out from that place. He’s lobbing in all these resentment-filled grenades, and hurting a lot of people in the process.
But that doesn’t excuse the Duke of Sussex’s behaviour in the butler’s eyes. He believes that Princess Diana would be ‘appalled’ by her son's accusations against the monarchy, especially Prince William.
‘A hothead like me’
However, if the Royal Family and people in general championed Prince William over Prince Harry, Burrell insists that in Lady Diana’s eyes, her boys were ‘absolutely equal’.
Although, Darren McGrady, Lady Di’s former personal chef, told Mail Online in 2019 that Princess Diana connected more with Prince Harry because he was ‘a hothead’ like her, whereas Prince William was ‘stubborn’ like his father.
According to the chef, Princess Diana would say:
They (the institution) will look after the heir, and I will look after the spare.
However, per Simone Simmons, a healer, a young Prince Harry once said:
The only time I get Mummy all to myself is when I'm off sick from school.
Perhaps, the only time he felt just as, or maybe more important than his brotherwas when he was with his mother. Although, Simmons said Princess Diana didn’t play favourites and loved both her sons ‘to the ends of the earth’.
Sources used:
- The Mirror: Prince William and Harry's feud may have started over sausages, ex-royal butler claims
- The Sun: WILLS' EXTRA BANGER Harry was made to feel less important than William as a child by getting fewer sausages at breakfast, says Paul Burrell
- Mail Online: 'William's deep like his dad, Harry's a hothead like me.' Friends of Princess Diana movingly recall the joyful times with her boys back when she could devote herself to them after her divorce
