23 September 2023 , 09:27
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Prince William hurt his younger brother Harry with a blistering comment when they both attended the same school.
The two sons of King Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, have a two-year age gap and were always close with one another while growing up at Kensington Palace. But things changed as the two became older and found their own paths in life.
But Harry, 39, recalls feeling "hurt" by what his older brother, 41, said to him when he joined Eton College in September 1998 where he studied for both his GCSEs and A Levels. William, however, started at Eton in 1995 having spent five years at Ludgrove Prep School in Berkshire.
Upon Harry starting at the prestigious college, he thought that he'd be closer than ever to the Prince of Wales as they hadn't seen a lot of each other due to their different schools. This couldn't be further from what Harry actually experienced as he wrote about his ordeal in his memoir, Spare.
Prince Harry was left "hurt" by William's comment when they both attended Eton College (WireImage)In an interview promoting his book, Harry sat down with 60 Minutes' Anderson Cooper and claimed his brother rejected him. "Your brother told you, 'Pretend we don't know each other'," said Cooper. Recalling the incident, Harry said: "Yeah, and at the time it hurt. 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.'
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"He's like, 'No, no, no, when we're at school we don't know each other.' And I took that personally." Discussing the blistering attacks against his family in his memoir, Harry added: "None of anything that I've written, anything I've included is ever intended to hurt my family.
Harry shared the revelation on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper (CBS via Getty Images)"But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers." Cooper went on to say that the pair were "inseparable" when they went on to live separate lives when their mother, Diana, died in 1996.
Despite initially being hurt by William's desire to distance himself from his younger sibling, the Duke later admitted that he now understands this. "I get how irritating the younger sibling can be to the older sibling," he told ITV. He went on to add: "But in the moment, at the time, I didn't – I didn't really grasp that, I didn't really realise it, but yes, I’ve always loved my brother."
The Prince of Wales has not responded to Harry's comments, although he is said to still be "hurt" by Harry's actions over the past few years.