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With the title of his best-selling memoir, Spare, Prince Harry made it crystal clear how he felt growing up in the royal family as the younger brother of the future king, Prince William. The Duke of Sussex alleged that the whole reason he was born was “in case something happened to William,” and that was “regularly reinforced” throughout his life.

“Two years older than me, Willy was the Heir, whereas I was the Spare,” Prince Harry explained. “I was the shadow, the support, the Plan B. I was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy … if necessary [I’d give] a spare part. Kidney perhaps. Blood transfusion. Speck of bone marrow.

“This was all made explicitly clear to me from the start of life’s journey and regularly reinforced thereafter.”

Those who worked in the royal household at the time though insisted that Princess Diana always treated her sons equally and had quite the reaction if she caught any staffers treating them differently.

Princess Diana actually called Prince Harry the ‘backup’ plan

Andrew Morton, who penned Princess Diana’s biography using her secretly recorded tapes, remembers Diana painting a picture of Charles as a loving father who was hands-on when Harry was born.

In her audio tapes, the princess said: “[Charles] loved the nursery life and couldn’t wait to get back and do the bottle and everything. He was very good, he always came back and fed the baby.”

Morton also told Newsweek that Diana had actually called Harry a “backup” to William explaining: “[Diana] always made it clear in the tapes and conversations with me or with [her friend] James [Colthurst] that [Harry] was a backup in the nicest possible way, so it wasn’t about him being an organ donor but a friend and supporter to William.”

But Diana didn’t approve of staffers treating her boys differently

Something Diana did not tolerate though was when some of the Palace staffers would openly favor William over Harry.

Paul Burrell became a royal family employee when he was 18. He was one of Queen Elizabeth II’s footmen until he joined Princess Diana’s staff as her personal butler in the years before her tragic death.

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Speaking on behalf of Genting Casino, Burrell said: “As the heir to the Windsor dynasty, William was always accepted with preferential treatment, much to Diana’s disappointment. Diana did not approve of that and if she found staff doing that she was furious. Diana made sure with herself, with anyone who came in touch with William and Harry, including protection officers and nannies, Diana would always say, ‘Both my boys are equal and they are to be treated as such.’”

Burrell added that despite Diana’s insistance, there were plenty of times the older prince got the special treatment over his brother. However, the former royal butler stressed that this happens in lots of families.

“If the boys wanted to ride their Shetland pony Smokey at Highgrove, William would get first go, and Harry would have to wait his turn,” Burrell recalled. “There’s a point in this sibling rivalry. It happens in every family; the older boys call precedence over the younger one, but it just so happened William was the heir and Harry was the spare.

“Whether it was driving their green Aston Martin around the Highgrove Estate, William would always insist he drove because he was the older boy, so he pulled rank. This happened naturally like in every other family, the older boy wins out. The boys were always treated equally by Diana and by Charles, but some others forgot and thought William was the more important.”

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