Princess Diana‘s intuition regarding her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, kicked into high gear when the boys were young. She realized her sons were opposites early on. In an interview, Diana once called Harry a “different character altogether” compared to his brother William. This observation rang true years later when the Duke of Sussex left his position as a senior member of the royal family, and his brother became the successor to his father, King Charles III.
A royal author claimed Prince William understood Princess Diana better than Prince Harry
Royal author Tina Brown once claimed that Prince William understood his mother better than Prince Harry. In her book The Palace Papers, Brown explained this point of view, reported Newsweek.
“The two-year age gap between them was critical in forging their distinctive worldviews and, equally so, in shaping their perceptions of their mother. Prince Harry idolized Diana more and understood her less,” wrote Brown.
However, “By his early teens, he [William] was his mother’s most trusted confidant. She used to describe him as ‘my little wise old man.’”
Harry still felt a kinship to his late mother and believed he and Diana shared the same personal conflict in his Apple TV docuseries The Me You Can’t See. He said: “Family members have said, ‘Just play the game, and your life will be easier,’ but I’ve got a hell of a lot of my mum in me. I feel as though I’m outside of the system, but I’m still stuck there. The only way to free yourself and break out is, to tell the truth.”
Princess Diana once said that Harry was a ‘different character altogether’ than William
In a 1985 interview with ITN, then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana discussed their children during an interview that prominently featured their sons. The Princess of Wales discussed Prince William’s character. She shared how different her oldest and youngest sons were.
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“Do you find already that Prince William has a will of his own?” interviewer Alastair Burnet asked in the 1985 clip. Diana replied: “Well, he certainly does. He’s a typical three-year-old. William is very enthusiastic about things, pushes himself right into it, he’s not at all shy.”
The Princess then said: “Where else perhaps Harry is quieter and just watches, whether he copies William, we wait and see, but he’s a different character altogether.” This prediction proved true when Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, chose to leave their positions as senior members of the royal family in early 2021.
Prince Harry reportedly always had intentions of leaving the royal family
In the docuseries Harry & Meghan, Harry admitted to being wary of royal life when he was a little boy. He recalled how paparazzi followed him and his brother William, who felt forced into smiling for photographs. He said, “that made me feel uncomfortable from the get-go.”
Harry spoke of Diana trying to carve out a life for herself and her sons outside the firm. He claimed that Diana experienced public pressure “with its fair share of drama, stress, and also tears and witnessing those tears. I always see it on my mom’s face. And I guess those are the moments when I thought, OK, hang on. Maybe what am I? Who am I? What am I part of?”
While a guest on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast in May 2021, Harry admitted, “in my early twenties, it was the case of ‘I don’t want this job, I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be doing this, look what it did to my mum. How am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and a family when I know it’s going to happen again?’”
He continued, “because I know, I’ve seen behind the curtain, I’ve seen the business model, I know how this operation runs and works, and I don’t want to be a part of this.”
