Prince Harry once told William ‘If you don’t want to be King, I will be’, royal author claims

Princess Diana was reportedly more concerned about Prince William’s reluctance toward royal attention than her younger son Harry, according to royal author Ingrid Seward.

Speaking about her new book, Catherine & Diana, on the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential, Seward said Diana recognised from an early age that William was uncomfortable with the intense public attention surrounding his future role as monarch.

Her comments also shed new light on the contrasting personalities of the two brothers — with Harry apparently once telling William that he would happily become King if his older brother did not want the role.

Diana was reportedly more worried about William

When host Luke Blackall asked Seward whether there were similarities between Diana and Harry’s experiences as highly visible public figures, the royal author offered a different perspective.

“It was William she worried about,” Seward said.

According to Seward, William struggled with the attention directed towards him from a young age, while Harry was more comfortable with the spectacle and traditions surrounding royal life.

“William didn’t like the attention that was focused on him from a very young age, and Harry used to say to him, ‘If you don’t want to be King, I will be,’” she said.

Seward, who has covered the Royal Family for around 40 years and knew Diana privately, said Harry was fascinated by the more traditional elements of royal life.

“Harry loved castles and soldiers and horses, and all the pageantry and the pomp, and William was more reticent and thought things through.”

She recalled Diana describing Harry as “happy-go-lucky” and someone who simply accepted the world as he found it.

“Funny thing is, Diana always said to me, ‘Oh, Harry will be fine!’ She got that wrong, didn’t she?” Seward said.

“She said, ‘He’ll be fine, he’s happy-go-lucky, he takes the world as he finds it.’ Well, he’s completely changed. She was wrong about Harry, but it was William she was worried about.”

A striking contrast between the brothers

William was only 15 when Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Seward said his mother had already recognised that the future King was uncomfortable with the level of attention attached to his position.

Harry, by contrast, appeared to embrace the ceremonial side of royal life when he was growing up.

The difference between the brothers was also illustrated by their former protection officer, Ken Wharfe.

Seward recalled Wharfe’s description of their contrasting reactions in an emergency: if someone were knocked over in the road, Harry would immediately run towards them, while William would first telephone the police.

“Harry does things without thinking about them,” Seward said.

She went on to argue that Harry’s later decisions had caused serious damage to the monarchy and that his memoir Spare contained remarks that were deeply hurtful.

Among the most contentious passages in the book was Harry’s account of an argument with William. Harry alleged that his older brother pushed him onto a dog bowl during a confrontation involving their relationship, his disputes with the press and Meghan Markle, leaving him with visible injuries.

Diana reportedly considered another future for Harry

Seward’s comments echo remarks made earlier this year by Daily Mail editor-at-large Richard Kay, who also spoke about Diana’s views of her sons on Palace Confidential.

Kay, who became a close personal friend of Diana during the final years of her life, said the Princess of Wales had once believed William might not want the “top job”.

He described William at the time as a shy young man and said Diana had told him she did not think her eldest son necessarily wanted to become King.

According to Kay, Diana therefore considered the possibility that Harry could one day succeed his father.

“She, in her mind, was preparing the way for the possibility that it would be Harry who succeeded his father,” Kay said.

He added that Diana had a nickname for her younger son: “Good King Harry”, a reference to medieval monarchs.

Kay acknowledged that events ultimately unfolded very differently.

William is now first in line to the throne after his father, King Charles, while Harry stepped away from his role as a senior working royal alongside Meghan in 2020.

Brothers remain estranged

The contrasting paths taken by William and Harry have become particularly significant as their relationship has deteriorated in recent years.

The brothers have not spoken to each other since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September 2022, according to the original report, although Harry said in an interview with the BBC last year that he hoped the situation could eventually change.

“There’s no point in continuing to fight any more,” Harry said at the time.

Despite that, friends of William and Catherine have reportedly maintained that the Waleses have struggled to move past a series of public criticisms and allegations made by Harry and Meghan after their departure from royal duties.

The dispute has included Harry’s account of the alleged confrontation with William at Nottingham Cottage, as well as revelations made in Spare and subsequent public discussions surrounding the Sussexes’ relationship with the Royal Family.

What began in childhood as a striking contrast between two brothers — one reportedly more comfortable with royal spectacle and the other more reluctant to embrace the spotlight — has since become part of a much larger and far more complicated royal family divide.