Prince Harry has revealed that the relationship between his children Archie and Lilibet reminds him of his and his older brother Prince William when they were kids.
The Duke of Sussex discussed his relationship with his older brother in an interview with Tom Bradby on ITV on Sunday, just two days before the release of his memoir “Spare.”
Observing how his and Meghan Markle’s children, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, interact taught him something about his relationship with Prince William, according to the royal.
According to Us Weekly, Prince Harry, who is two years older than his older brother, told Bradby:
“The gap between me and William was very similar to Archie and Lili. And to see Lili obsessed with Archie and Archie like, ‘No, no, Lili, I need my space. I need my space now.’ I get it. … I get how irritating the younger sibling can be to the older sibling.”
In his new book, Prince Harry discusses the ups and downs of his relationship with his older brother, including how they dealt with the death of their mother, Princess Diana, differently and how her death kept them emotionally apart.
He explained to Bradby Sunday:
“But in the moment of the time, I didn’t really grasp that. I didn’t really realize it. But yes, I’ve always loved my brother. And I think what would be quite shocking or surprising to people is that after our mother died, we were on different paths. Right? Two individuals who experienced a very similar traumatic experience, but dealt with it in two very different ways.”
When their mother died in 1997, Prince Harry and Prince William were 12 and 15, respectively. In his book, he claimed that when he finally joined his brother at Eton, the Prince of Wales told him to pretend they didn’t know each other, which Harry admitted “hurt” him at the time.
Prince Harry also discussed his and William’s childhood “sibling rivalry” with Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
Harry told Cooper:
“I couldn’t make sense of it. I was like, ‘What do you mean? We’re now at the same school. Like, I haven’t seen you for ages, now we get to hang out together.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no, when we’re at school, we don’t know each other.’ And I took that personally.”
Social media users reacted differently to Prince Harry’s revelation. Some could relate to Prince William, while others sympathized with Prince Harry and argued that such behavior by siblings was not normal.
One person commented:
“That made me laugh because my daughters went to the same school and my eldest daughter would tell the younger that at school they don’t know each other. That is normal behavior with siblings.”
Another wrote:
“My older brother would look for me when we were in school together so that he could watch out for me. I see William had a different definition of being a big brother. If he wouldn’t look out for his own brother, what kind of king will he be to Commonwealth citizens?”
The book “Spare” by Prince Harry will be available on Tuesday.