The royal family is keeping an eye on Prince George’s dynamic with his siblings after Prince William and Prince Harry’s drama bubbled over following the publication of Spare.
“They have to think about George’s feelings in relation to his siblings. George has all this pressure,” royal expert Christopher Andersen exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, July 24, noting the future king needs to know he can rely on his sister, Princess Charlotte, and his brother, Prince Louis, down the road. “He has these two siblings who can help him — who can ease some of the pressure and share some of the burden.”
Andersen — who wrote The King: The Life of King Charles III — noted that “by the same token, they don’t wanna feel sidelined. They don’t wanna feel invisible in his shadow.”
William, 41, and his wife, Princess Kate, with whom he shares George, 10, Charlotte, 8, and Louis, 5, are well aware what can happen when the so-called “spare” sibling feels slighted.
Prince Harry. FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“The royal family does not want another kid writing a book … another edition of Spare,” Andersen told Us. “Obviously, Harry was very hurt by being in the shadow of his brother. I think they’re aware of that.”
The author added that the “family dynamic” between George and his younger siblings “is much healthier than it normally would be in the royal family.”
Like all siblings, William and Harry, 38, have had their ups and downs. However, their lows took centerstage when Harry released his 2023 memoir, Spare. In the book, he called William his “archnemesis” and detailed how he felt being labeled the “spare” member of the royal line by his loved ones.
“I was summoned to provide backup, distraction, diversion and, if necessary, a spare part. Kidney, perhaps. Blood transfusion. Speck of bone marrow,” Harry wrote. “This was all made explicitly clear to me from the start of life’s journey and regularly reinforced after.”
Harry, who stepped back from his senior royal role in 2020, claimed he and William “had a million physical fights” throughout their lives. Harry further alleged that in 2019 there was an altercation in which William attacked him over his marriage to Meghan Markle.
He claimed that William called Meghan, 41, “difficult” and “rude” while at Harry and Meghan’s home. Harry alleged that his brother then “grabbed” him by the collar and broke his necklace before William “knocked me to the floor.”
William has not publicly commented on his brother’s claims, but a source exclusively told Us at the time, “William thinks Harry is delusional making these crazy allegations. It’s the ultimate betrayal. The trust between the two brothers is completely broken.”
In the months that followed, Andersen revealed that not much has changed between King Charles III and the late Princess Diana’s two sons. “I don’t see any anybody holding out the olive branch on either side,” Andersen told Us on Monday. “It’s almost as if they’ve just settled into this situation. It’s unfortunate.”
When it comes to William’s own kids, their relationship appears to be one built on love. “George has got loving parents and they dote on him and the kids,” Andersen explained, noting that as kids William and Harry didn’t have a happy home life.
Charles, now 74, and Diana made headlines in 1992 when they split amid the now-king’s affair with Queen Camilla. One year after Charles and Diana finalized their divorce in 1996, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. She was 36.
“The pressures that were on William and Harry grew so much from the dynamics in their family life,” Andersen said. “The fact that Diana was so unhappy and Charles [was] in love with somebody else [was tough].”
Prince William, Catherine Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis. Shutterstock
George, Charlotte and Louis don’t have those same hardships. However, they are the first set of royals to grow up in the age of social media.
“The intrusions on their privacy are just gonna be that much greater so that they have to walk this line, William and Kate do, of protecting the kids’ privacy,” Andersen added. “[They’re] trying to make sure they grow up as normal as they can — but also giving the British people and the world what they is required of them, which is visibility.”
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With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
