Prince Harry: The Complicated Childhood Of A Royal Prince | The Mysterious Prince | Timeline

Prince Henry Charles Albert David, third in line to the British throne, is famous for some things he'd rather forget. Unlike his brother William, Harry has seen his life played out in a series of sensational headlines. There was that distinctly unregal fracker with a photographer outside a London nightclub. And a few weeks later, Harry caused global outrage by wearing a Nazi uniform at a party. But on the field, on the piste and on a horse, Harry outperforms his older brother William. He's a great sportsman, fearless skier, very brave on a polo pony, and again on a horse chasing after foxes and hounds. He is actually better than William in most sports. But unlike the cool-headed William, beneath his mischievous appearance, Harry has a temper as hot as his red hair. This trait is sometimes seen on the polo field, where frustration is soon followed by anger. Harry's occasional displays of tantrums and swearing at the Bofor Polo Club have embarrassed his father, Prince Charles. He also has a quick temper, but Harry's wilder streak is inherited from his mother's Spencer family genes. There are some definite Spencer traits in him, you've only got to look at that sandy hair of his, it comes and inherits straight from his uncle, Charles Spencer, and he's got the same Spencer fiery temper. He's on a short fuse most of the time, and if he's provoked by the sight of photographers or the paparazzi hanging around, he can fly off the handle. As long as he's getting his own way, Harry's quite happy. It's when he's compromised, when he's told to do things he doesn't particularly want to do, that's when the temper comes to the fore. Charles scarcely knows what to do about his younger son's behaviour. There have been rumours of heated rows and angry telephone calls. There have been arguments over Harry's friends and their influence. Even his polo pals have come under fire. But Harry remains loyal to his friends in one of the few areas of his life where he feels successful. He's rarely praised for anything else, so he treasures prizes won on the polo field. Harry remains a difficult character, whose unruly conduct often damages his reputation. I think Harry gets pushed to the limit, and events maybe of his own making admittedly happen to him that push him to the limit. He's constantly followed, he's constantly photographed when he's meant to be enjoying his own time, and he's meant to be relaxing. And there are obviously parts of his character that we don't always see. He wants to be noticed, I think he enjoys being noticed, but I think he also loves the fact that it doesn't matter what he does, because in a way he's not important. Although, you know, serious people will tell you, but he's only three heartbeats away from the throne. I mean, well he is, but no one expects him seriously to actually reach it. Another area where Harry finds similar company is among the hunting set. Like William, he rides with the prestigious Beaufort Hunt. Charles and Camilla are also members of this hunt. Among the other riders is their friend Captain Simon Tomlinson, a wealthy Gloucestershire landowner. Tomlinson, in the red trousers, is also the chairman of the Beaufort Polo Club, where Charles, William and Harry play. Tomlinson's sons are in Harry's social set. He's mixing with young people from a similar background. They hunt, they're moneyed, their parents are friends of the royals themselves, there's a lot of privilege, they all went to decent public schools. He hangs around very much with that kind of group of people. So we've got people who are members of the Beaufort Hunt, they played polo in Sirencester Park in the summer, they ski, they're all well-to-do young folk. And he's more comfortable in them. I don't know how many friends he's got from the other side of the tracks, but I would wager very, very few. Secure in the gilded circle of accepted companions is Luke Tomlinson, an England polo player. The Tomlinson children are part of what's known as the Glossy Posse, that group of rich, eligible young chaps and chappesses down in Gloucestershire. They're childhood friends who've grown up together, but with Luke especially, Harry has continued a good, close friendship. Luke was part of a protest outside the Houses of Parliament against anti-hunt laws. Then the House of Commons was invaded by pro-hunt supporters, including Luke Tomlinson. Sitting suspended. There's a bit of envy, a touch of the green-eyed monster for Harry when it comes to Luke, because not only is he a strapping lad, which obviously Harry is as well, but he gets away with so much more than Harry ever would. He gets to storm the Commons when it's an anti-hunting ban that Harry would probably passionately want to support, but could never do. Luke gets to do those things. Luke gets to go and get the girls and, you know, muck around after polo and everything else and not end up in the papers as prominently, of course, as Harry will. Not far from Highgrove, Prince Charles' Gloucestershire home, are hostelries such as the Vine Tree and, in nearby Sherston, the Rattlebone Inn, scene of some of Harry's wilder exploits. In February 2002, 16-year-old Harry was exposed by a tabloid newspaper for smoking cannabis and underage drinking in pubs close to Highgrove. Harry's illegal escapades were confirmed by Charles' biographer Penny Junor. I live locally and I have children of the same sort of age as Harry and it has been known for, I've known for quite a long time that he has been drinking underage in pubs and drinking a lot and behaving pretty badly. Harry was reticent about answering press questions during a skiing holiday with his father and brother. Harry, how have you settled down after all that publicity about your exploits? Charles had warned both William and Harry about the consequences of drug taking and the inevitable publicity. Remember Prince Charles telling me actually several years ago when we were sitting having tea at Highgrove, that he was really worried about drugs, he said, what can you do? Because the minute William and Harry get anywhere near drugs it's going to be all over the press which is exactly what happened. Some of Harry's reckless in-crowd have led him astray. He has a rent-a-mob group of friends who drink with him and smoke with him and hang out with him. He surrounds himself with quite vacuous people. It's all part of Harry's hedonistic lifestyle. Part of Harry's problem is the gang who's around him. If the royal advisors can do anything, they would be well advised to split him away from these malign influencers. Among the best known is Harry's raffish second cousin, Freddie Windsor, who enjoys publicity and courts the media. And Camilla's son, Tom Parker-Bowles. Like Freddie, he was caught out taking drugs. And the prince's joker pal, Guy Pelly, blamed for Harry's bad habits. Everything that Guy Pelly has been in the papers for would suggest very strongly that he is a bad, bad influence on the princes. He is the first one to strip, the first one to moon, the first one to neck a yard of ale. He will do all those things and because of that, William and Harry and everyone else that know him adore him. But I actually know through friends of William and Harry's that Guy Pelly is probably one of the most loyal friends to both of them. Guy shouldered the blame for Harry when he was caught out over the whole cannabis smoking fiasco. He was the one that took responsibility for that and said that it was him who had introduced the prince and therefore it is my fault. And it's interesting that Charles has never said to either William or Harry, he's to be outcast from your circle of friends. And Charles has done that in the past. He's done it with Tom Parker-Bowles. He's done it with Freddie Windsor. He has done it, but he's never done it with Guy Pelly. The big trouble with Harry is he's probably influenced by the last person who said anything to him. And so he tends to be influenced by his peers. And if his peers lead him into trouble, then he's going to get into trouble. As Harry's conduct worsened, Charles and his staff were faced with an escalating damage control problem. More bad behaviour meant more bad publicity and more criticism. In a fit of temper, Harry hit a photographer outside a London nightclub. He was sent away to Argentina. He was to spend several weeks working on the polo ranch of the Tomlinson family. Out there, he secretly met up with his latest girlfriend, Chelsea Davy. But once again, trouble found Harry. He had to come home amidst stories of partying in local clubs and kidnap threats to his safety. Harry was under scrutiny for drinking, binge drinking, going out late at night. I mean, those reports were strongly denied by the palace, and actually I think the truth of what happened in Argentina was that he kept himself to himself. And Chelsea Davy, who of course was the secret flame that he'd been nurturing for the past eight months and had secretly got over in Argentina without anyone foiling it. One of the country's most elite nightclubs has the unusual setting of Highgrove, Prince Charles' country home. Members of William and Harry's young circle of friends gather here, especially when Charles is away. This is the location of Club H. The Club H is actually a physical place. It was the cellars underneath Highgrove that Charles had converted into a playroom for the boys a few years ago, which as they got older, they decided to turn more into a nightclub. So they had a music system put in, there's a bar down there, and it became a regular fixture for them on a Saturday night. They would bring their friends round there, they would party there, and all sorts of nefarious things went on there. The Prince of Wales did turn a blind eye to it, except when the music was too loud, and that's about the only time he really took much interest in what was going on. And when he wasn't there, I think the boys were able to do pretty much what they liked, inviting who they liked round there. Church Farm, West Littleton, in Wiltshire, is the country home of Princess Anne's former boyfriend, Richard Meade. An Olympic gold medallist, Meade has stayed in favour as part of the Royal Hunting, Shooting and Fishing Circle. William and Harry were invited to Meade's son Harry's 22nd birthday party. The princes chose their Colonials and Natives themed costumes from a local fancy dress shop. William picked a leopard skin outfit, Harry an Afrika Korps Nazi uniform complete with a swastika. One of the 400 party guests took a sneak picture of Harry and sold it to the press. Harry was widely condemned for his insensitivity. William became embroiled in the row. William was in the shop with him at the time, apparently, when he chose this costume. And it also didn't occur to William to say, Harry, that's perhaps not in the best taste. Why don't you go for a different Colonial outfit? Why would William, who is a mature young man, have allowed Harry to dress in that German officer's uniform? It was a naive thing to do. And William could have said, hang on a bit, think about this. He simply didn't think. I think there was a thoughtlessness about many of his actions. He doesn't seem to appreciate yet that what he does actually matters. If it had been one of his friends who dressed up in a German uniform, it wouldn't have mattered at all. But it's because it's Prince Harry, it's because he's the third in line to the throne, he has to be responsible. And at the moment, he isn't. Harry's friends came under press criticism for their wealthy backgrounds, lack of purpose and loutish conduct. A guest at the mead party revealed that Guy Pelly, dressed as the Queen in a blue dress, grey wig and crown, told a risque joke about her. When Harry was at this party and larking around and just about to laugh at Guy Pelly's alleged joke about the Queen, it was William that shot him the very fiery glance to say, watch it. Harry's Nazi gaffe, made near the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, prompted calls for a televised apology, but Charles felt that a two-line statement issued by his office was enough. Harry would have been well advised to have made a much more public, heartfelt apology for his gaffe in wearing a Nazi uniform. It wasn't a press-driven story. There was genuine outrage around the world at what he did. It was a big mistake. And I think he could have come out and said something publicly, or perhaps Prince Charles could have done. Charles remained on holiday at Bourke Hall in Scotland, planning his marriage to Camilla. Had Harry's lack of support from Charles been part of his problems? I think he could have had a lot more guidance, especially from his father. Harry's on a gap year at the moment, and a very unstructured gap year. You would expect that there would be a father figure there to help him plan the next few months of this year off. And he seems to have spent so much of it on his own, and I think that's got to be a major cause for him going off the rails, because he hasn't had the guidance there. Harry had to atone for his offence. He was ordered to spend time swilling out the pigs on one of his father's farms. As a child, Harry showed two sides. The shepherd with the angelic face was also a little rascal who poked out his tongue. Holiday photo calls tested his patience. He had to behave at kindergarten, but palace balcony appearances were an excuse for showing off. Harry showed an early interest in sport, and enjoyed annual family skiing holidays. He was taken to polo matches. He learned to swim in warm Spanish waters. He got an early taste of army life inside a tank in Germany. There were holidays in exotic locations. William and Harry went to Nevis Island in the Caribbean. They were fascinated by the local wildlife, nine-inch long toads. There must have been 20 or 30 of these giant toads sitting in this flower bed. So, systematically, Harry had collected these toads and put them in a sort of basket, and they were all trying to jump out of this basket. And then with William, they eventually lined up these toads by the swimming pool, and we had what was then famously known as the Nevis Toad Derby. Official tours meant partings from their parents, and joyful reunions, often aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Once, when Diana had greeted William first, Harry kicked him in resentment. The boys got on well together, but there was an undercurrent of sibling rivalry. When Harry was younger, he was jealous of William, because he wanted his mother all to himself. I mean, if they were in a room together, Harry would sit almost on top of Diana in his anxiety to be close to her. And he didn't want William anywhere near her. He said, Mummy, I want you all to myself. Harry was a typical mummy's boy, clingy and in need of reassurance. Posed pictures on summer holidays in Mallorca, he'd a dark secret. Despite appearances, his parents' marriage was disintegrating. Diana would soon take her sons on trips away from Charles. With a welcoming hug, she would be the parent to greet them at school. Caribbean holidays gave Diana the chance to make Harry feel special. These boyhood moments must be among his most treasured memories of her. He was still a child when she died. He was a terribly affectionate little boy, always wrapped around his mother, sneaking into her bed early in the morning for a cuddle. And I think that's what he desperately, desperately needs. And I hope now that he's found it. She worried because he was the number two, that he would be the one who would be overlooked. Everything would come to William. William was the one they were grooming for the future. And it was that, one of the reasons why Diana used to say to me and others that she wanted to involve Harry in William's life. And it carries on to this day. William rarely does photo calls on his own. Harry is always drawn into those because she didn't want him to be constantly overlooked. Oh, he's the spare. He doesn't count. She wanted him to count. And Prince Charles has taken that on board. That policy of making Harry feel important sometimes upset William. He began to see Harry as a rival, especially on skis. There was a lot of jealousy. I think at one stage, William stomped off in a tantrum because he wasn't feeling well. He had flu and there was Harry doing really well on his skis and William kept falling over, so he just stomped off. Harry had a natural affinity with sport. The sporting star of the family is definitely Harry and it always has been. And that used to really irritate William because he would see his younger brother better on the skis than he was. And Harry was fearless. You see, Harry is fearless. Althorp House, Northamptonshire, the seat of the Spencer dynasty. Diana is buried on an island in the estate. At her funeral, her brother, the current Earl, vowed that the Spencers, the Blood family, would take care of William and Harry. Their maternal line is more aristocratic than the royal family's Germanic house of Windsor. When Diana was 14, her father inherited the title Earl Spencer and Althorp with its rich heritage. Ancestral portraits grace the rooms of Diana's home before her royal marriage. At 16, and still a schoolgirl, she showed Prince Charles the family portrait gallery. Like her grandmother, Cynthia, she was very much a Spencer and proud of her family's status. Throughout her troubled life in the royal family, she never forgot that she was the daughter of an English Earl with a flawless pedigree. I think there's no doubt that in the royal game, if you've got an impeccable bloodline of your own, it puts you at an advantage because the way the British, the English system, still very much works where royalty is concerned, is that your status at birth is still what counts to an extraordinary degree. And the fact that Diana was able to look the Windsors in the eye and be prepared to compare her pedigree with theirs any day meant that she was able to take an independent line when it was necessary. Her mother, Frances, her red-haired brother, Charles, then an Eton schoolboy, and her married sisters, Sarah and Jane, all watched Diana's splendid wedding to Prince Charles in 1981. This was the dynasty's greatest triumph. 20-year-old Diana united the Spencers with the royal family. Her father had survived serious illness to enjoy his proudest day. Two years after William, Diana gave birth to Harry in 1984. The couple now had an heir and a spare. Charles, who had wanted a girl, said, ''Oh, it's a boy, and he's even got rusty hair.'' A friend of mine had gone to see Harry, and there he was with his red hair, which Prince Charles apparently didn't like, and she was cuddling him and saying, ''He's my little Spencer now.'' And he does have the looks of the Spencers. Eversfield Manor in Devon was the home of Diana's most famous lover, Major James Hewitt. She admitted their affair on television. A legend has spread that Harry is red-haired Hewitt's son. Ken Wharfe, her bodyguard during her five-year romance with Hewitt, is among those who know the truth. What we saw after the birth of Harry was a lot of speculation and rumour that Harry was the son of James Hewitt. Well, statistically, we know that that was impossible. I know personally it wasn't, because the Princess told me so, and I think really that's where the matter ends. The story will never, ever go away, that the copper-haired Hewitt, sandy-haired Harry, the dates and everything, everyone thinks he's got to be Hewitt's son. Also, there are some physical characteristics which I would commend to you, but particularly one. Harry, his brother, his father and his grandfather, Prince Philip, share one thing in common. They all have sausage fingers. In 2004, at the opening of the Diana Memorial Fountain in London's Hyde Park, the Spencers and the Windsors met for the first time since Diana's funeral. Earl Spencer greeted William and Harry. Despite his vow at Diana's funeral, he'd been unable to protect Harry from gossip and innuendo. He is terribly hurt by all these revelations that keep coming out about his mother, the endless books, the videotapes, all the allegations that keep coming out. The latest one is that Prince Charles lost all interest romantically in his wife after Harry was born. How do you think that makes Harry feel? Apart from that, Harry has had to live with these stories that he's James Hewitt's son, which he most certainly is not. He just happens to have red hair, just like all his cousins on the Spencer's side of the family. So, poor Harry is a tormented young man. The Queen praised Diana. I cannot forget, and nor can those of us here today, who knew her much more personally as sister, wife, mother or daughter-in-law, the Diana who made such an impact on our lives. Of course, there were difficult times, but memories mellow with the passing of the years. I remember especially the happiness she gave to my two grandsons. William was 15 and Harry almost 13 when they walked behind their mother's coffin in view of the watching world. To find that your mother died suddenly in a car crash in Paris would be difficult for anybody. The very fact that Harry at that time was in his early teens would have been doubly, doubly difficult, and to do so publicly in front of a global media circus. But I think this was a classic case of Harry grieving the loss of somebody that was crucially important to his life. More than anyone else, Tiggy Legg-Burke, the Prince's nanny, helped them through the darkest phase of their loss and grief. Tiggy was pivotal because she looked after the boys. As soon as they came down from Scotland and the funeral was over, they went to Highgrove, and that week, which must have been one of the most difficult weeks of their lives, Tiggy was there and she took them out, anything to distract them, because they love Tiggy very much and still do. And in fact, Tiggy's the only person that Harry will really listen to. Tiggy had been brought in to look after the boys when their parents separated and Charles was frequently away. She took Harry abseiling in Wales. Diana resented her role. Diana used to get really annoyed with Tiggy because she felt Tiggy wasn't looking after the boys properly and she let Harry abseil down a rock in Wales without a protective helmet and she was furious. But basically, she loathed Tiggy, which is actually completely understandable because she saw that Tiggy was usurping her position as a mother. Just a few months after their mother's death, Charles took the boys to Canada. The visit was a new experience for them. William, emerging as the royal family's pin-up prince, looked far more mature than young Harry. William received a pop star's reception and was beginning to enjoy his popularity. Harry had already made a trip, just with Charles, to Swaziland. Clearly a child who still needed his father, he relished the change of continent, climate and customs, although Charles was not too sure about the local brew. All this took Harry's mind off his terrible loss. Harry loved it. Suddenly, he was the centre of attention. There was no William there to make him feel second best. He was the centre of attention and he lived up to it really well and it was a big treat for him. It was organised to take Harry's mind off what had happened and give him something to look forward to. The Spice Girls were there too. When they were younger, Harry and William loved the Spice Girls and William even had a poster of them in his room at Eton. And again, to kind of cheer them up, Charles invited the Spice Girls to Highgrove and they went in a helicopter. And when they got there, they were very bouncy and they ran up to William and Harry's bedroom and bounced on the beds with them. This was Harry's treat. Sport provided a focus for Harry. Skiing appealed to his daredevil nature. Not quite as academic as William, Harry also loved football, rugby, cricket, swimming, athletics and, of course, polo. He tried tobogganing in the Swiss Alps. And quad biking on the Colorado ranch of film star Goldie Hawn. Harry grew into a tall, athletic young man, but he was not a natural student. He had visited Eton when William started in 1995. Harry followed three years later. Both boys relied heavily on their housemaster, Dr Andrew Gailey. Diana had many reservations about Harry going to Eton, not least because William had quite a difficult few years there. He found it difficult to make friends and he felt very isolated. Diana, being the protective maternal figure that she was, obviously had concerns that Harry would also go through that feeling of isolation, but also she was very aware that she didn't have an academic son. Founded in 1440, Eton is England's leading independent school. It has a uniform dating from 1820 and many ancient traditions. As at their prep school, Harry followed in William's footsteps. At Eton, they were treated the same as other boys. Harry battled academically and had to drop one advanced level subject. But he enjoyed drama and art particularly. William made a success of Eton, but was the decision to send Harry there the right one? Harry had a tough time at school. He was sent really to the wrong school. Eton is an intellectual hothouse, Harry is not an intellectual. He was kept back a year before he actually went up to Eton to try and speed up his education at prep school. I recall hearing soon after he arrived, he'd made friends with a young guy who'd also just arrived, who had not had a successful test in some particular test they were doing. This boy said to Harry one day, you don't know what it's like to be bottom of the class, to which Harry said with great alacrity, you don't know what it's like to be bottom of the school. And I think that tells you everything you need to know about how he struggled at Eton. Like Charles, Harry enjoyed school plays. Dressing up appealed to the creative side in him, but he didn't learn the difference between costumes like these, which were acceptable, and the Nazi outfit, which was not. That incident raised questions about his schooling. Was this a bad day for Eton? Eton has a fantastic reputation. They turn out some very intelligent young men who go on to great things, and there's no doubt it's an extremely good school. I think there's only so much a school can teach. If you're not awake and listening during class, well, there's not much they can do about it. Harry excelled on the playing fields of Eton. He was captain of games and was good at soccer, rugby, Eton Fives and the annual Eton Wall game. At advanced level, he gained a D grade for geography and a B grade for art. This was his favourite subject. He allowed the cameras to record his advanced level project work. He showed his brightly decorated study bedroom. He left school, joyfully, in June 2003. However, a year later, a former art teacher claimed she had been instructed by the school to give him unfair assistance with his art coursework. It was Diana that always said that Harry's fine, he's artistic, he's a fantastic sportsman. William is more sensitive. William considers things before he does them. I mean, Harry will do something on the spur of the moment and think about the consequences later. A classic example of Harry's impulsive nature, occurred when he was teased outside a nightclub. A photographer mocked him about his alleged art cheating. Harry reacted by lashing out and had to be restrained by his minders. Should Harry have been prepared for such goading? He was full of boos, he was angry that they were there, I mean, utterly naive, because he knew that there were going to be photographers outside that club, and he just came out. He couldn't control himself, and 20 years of being aware of these bloody photographers, he went out like a rocket. And I remember saying at the time that this was the actions of a young man that had come to the end of his patience. His witnesses, with his mother, you had his own uncle, say in that marvellous eulogy that the press, in his view, were in some ways responsible for her death. Now, all this history that builds up inside his head must surely play a part, and in some way explain why he reacted in that way. The only way out of this is to sort of leave the club. Whatever your feelings, whatever your views, is actually to give that amazing smile and that wave, because that's the one thing the media don't want. What Harry did was give them that amazing opportunity for the different picture, so therefore he effectively played right into their hands. Harry played polo for Eton, and at one stage considered a career as a professional polo player. It was an indication of his difficulty in finding a role suitable for himself as a royal second son. Other princes in the past have been in similar positions. Of particular interest to Harry is his uncle Andrew, Duke of York. In far-off days before the Queen had to worry about her family's marriages and divorces, and Charles seemed the perfect heir, her second son Andrew looked like the problem child. I do recall Andrew being a bit of a problem. Around the time he was about 16, he famously went off to Los Angeles. I think it was his first taste of foreign work on behalf of the royals, and he decided to let off a fire extinguisher at a group of press photographers and cover them in foam head to foot. It was a very embarrassing incident and did a lot of damage, incidentally, to the equipment. But that was an early marker, one, on his behaviour, but it sent out a message to the Queen. She realised that her second son was going to have to be reigned in, and he was reigned in. What they did with Andrew, quite simple, they put him in the navy. Andrew left Gordonstoun School in Scotland for naval training. He became a helicopter pilot. He married and divorced Sarah Ferguson, but the couple remained friends for the sake of their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie. Have their cousins William and Harry been damaged by their parents' bitter split? I think the Queen does worry about her grandsons. She's extremely close to them. She worries less about William because she sees more of him, and she's happy about the way he's developing as an heir in line to the throne. I think Harry's a different kettle of fish. I think she probably sees in him more of Prince Andrew, and I think she would like Prince Charles to take a tighter control of Harry's life. The Queen's grandfather, George V, was a second son who succeeded to the throne after the early death of his elder brother. He changed the family's German name, Sachs-Coburg-Gotha, to the English-sounding House of Windsor. He and Queen Mary were stern parents. Their elder son David was rebellious. His affair with Wallace Simpson led to his abdication. As Edward VIII, he gave up the throne for the woman he loved. As Duke and Duchess of Windsor, they lived in exile. The throne passed to the second son of George V, the shy Bertie. He became King George VI, father of the Queen. Some wonder if Charles should step aside for William, and there are others who wonder if William might one day step aside for Harry. I think if British history teaches us anything, it is that where succession to the throne is concerned, people are remarkably pragmatic, so to that extent, anything is possible, theoretically. Diney would say Harry would love it, and he used to say, Don't worry, William, I'll be king. History does repeat itself, but for it to repeat itself and for William to abdicate, if you like, and Harry to become king, I think is very unlikely. It's a different world now, and I think that by the time William becomes king, he will be so much more of a figurehead. All the signals are that Harry will have an easier life than William because he has the privileges, but he doesn't have the responsibility that William has. Caernarfon Castle, July 1969. The investiture of the 21st Prince of Wales. In this elaborate ceremony, Charles swore lifelong loyalty to the Queen. He was a 20-year-old Cambridge undergraduate. He also had to spend a term at Aberystwyth University, learning Welsh. This was the beginning of his public life. William and Harry have not been expected to perform public duties. Is it fair to make comparisons with their father? The Prince of Wales was, in fact, the heir to the throne, and William, in particular, and Harry, of course, aren't the same person. They are not. They're the spares. Prince Charles is still the heir to the throne, so they are allowed this extra time to have on their own. This very much also was Diana's wish. She wanted them to have time to develop, to grow as teenagers. The death of their mother in 1997 was devastating for both boys, but was one affected more than the other? One must remember, Harry was not yet 13 when Diana died. He was extremely upset, affected by his mother's death. He misses her still, to this day, terribly. I think it had a more profound effect on Harry than it did on William. William is a much more self-contained young man. So the net effect was that Charles and his advisors decided that they were to have as normal and as acquired an upbringing as possible. So instead of thrusting them into the line of royal duty at an early age, they'd been allowed to have a life very much like those of their friends. Privileged, yes, but without much responsibility either. Harry's initiation into the army came as a soldier in the school's cadet corps. He was promoted to the highest rank of cadet officer. He was to join the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in January 2005, but his entry was postponed because of a knee injury. Both William and Harry attended a parade of the parachute regiment, of which their father is colonel-in-chief. Harry's always been interested in the military. That's what Diana was explaining to me. Harry will be fine because he's always loved the military. He loves castles and pomp and soldiers, and when he was a little kid, he had a complete camouflage outfit made for him and wouldn't take it off. And James Hewitt also gave him a little military outfit, and Diana took him with her when she went to visit one of her regiments, and he sat in a tank and pretended to fire guns, and he's always loved it. So he's been single-minded, really, about what he wants to do. I think if he can focus all the aggression that he feels at the moment into a military career and the fact that he obviously feels very hard done by and there is a lot of aggression and frustration, if he can channel that into his military career, he's going to be a fantastic soldier. Harry's gap year began with a spell in Australia as a jackaroo in the summer of 2003. He worked for three months as a cattle hand, part of a programme designed to widen his work experience. It has not been a success. It's been a monumental disaster. A gap year is a year. A gap year. It says it all there in the title. Harry's having a gap two years. I've never heard of a gap two years before. In Argentina, Harry was with his girlfriend Chelsea Davy, the 19-year-old daughter of a Zimbabwean businessman close to President Mugabe. Is Harry really such a worry? There are concerns within the royal household at Harry's immaturity. He is immature. He's a young 20, if you like. He's not yet very much grown up. He's still the rather mischievous teenager that he was a few years ago. A few months before her death, Diana made a humanitarian visit to war-torn Angola. She saw AIDS, malnutrition and landmine injuries. Harry wants to continue the work cut short by her tragic death. He visited Lesotho in 2004. He's inherited her rapport with children and clearly enjoys being with them. Harry spent part of his time at an orphanage in Lesotho where 40% of the population is believed to be infected with AIDS. While there, he made a documentary, The Forgotten Kingdom, Prince Harry in Lesotho. I always wanted to go to an AIDS country to carry on my mother's legacy as much as I can. I don't want to take over because I never will. I don't think anyone can. But I want to try and carry it on to make her proud. Harry's trip to Lesotho was fantastic for him because he is actually very caring and he does want to carry his mother's torch. And you saw how relaxed he was in front of the cameras and you saw how good he was with the kids. I think it was very good for him. Harry will continue to take an interest in countries with AIDS problems. How well does this image of Harry sit with his wilder side? The Palace have made a huge problem for themselves. On the one hand, they're trying to tell us that here is the caring young man who is charitable, concerned about the welfare of the less well-off in much the way that his mother was. But on the other, he's behaving like a hooray out of control. And the two cannot meet. And I think they have to decide which is the real Harry. I think they thrust him into this at far too young of age. It would be much better for him to have got the discipline of the army behind him before they started to suggest he had this future as his mother's successor. Is Harry the world card in the royal family? A rich young man with a playboy image? Or the screwed-up kid who still misses his mother and mixes in bad circles? There are signs that he does take his charitable interests seriously. At Polo, he was seen displaying his Lesotho souvenir bracelet to his teammates. Despite the criticism of his sub-Diana-type approach to his charitable work, I think he does genuinely take an interest in the dispossessed, in the way that his mother did. I think he is aware there are people less fortunate than himself. I think he would like to make a difference. However, he wants to be able to have a good time himself. I mean, I think one of his most attractive qualities is that he's not stuffy. He's not like the majority of the royal family, hidebound by tradition and protocol. He's a bit of a free spirit, and I think that's very attractive, and I think it comes out well. I think that's the reason why he's popular in this country. Close observers have noticed that Harry wears a certain faded polo shirt when playing for his father's team. Harry and William and Prince Charles have a polo team, the Highgrove polo team, and they have red and purple shirts. And Harry has a particular shirt that he likes because every time he's worn it, they've won, and it's very washed out and sort of ragged-looking, but that's what he likes to do. He thinks it's a lucky shirt, so he always wears it. And Harry has it hanging out. When you see Harry on the polo field, he looks smart because he's so tall, but he's always got something, a little bit of trendiness about him. He's not nearly as good-looking as William, but he is sexy, and he's attractive because you can see the fun in him. As in most other things, the brothers have a different approach to polo. It could almost be a metaphor for their differences in personality. Harry is totally fearless, almost reckless, just gallops into the fray, but William sort of hangs back and is more cautious. But their polo manager said to me that William thinks about the game more, so really it ends up that they're both sort of fairly equal when it comes to their ranking on the polo field. The royal family operates a ranking procedure among its members. Harry's occasional arrogance might be a cover for feelings of insecurity. Harry's always felt second best. The Queen Mother in particular, if the boys walked into the room, she'd say, William, come and sit here, and William would be next to the Queen Mother, and Harry would just be forgotten. And in order to compensate for that feeling of being second best, he's become more boisterous, better at sport, funnier, naughtier. Harry is very much his own person, easier going than the more self-contained William. He gets on well with cousins Beatrice and Eugenie, and Peter and Zara Phillips. He's much more open and accessible than William. If we want to deal with William, we have to go through intermediaries. With Harry, you can say, oh, look, Harry, could you just do this? And he'll go, oh, all right, then. Or, I'll think about it. You can deal directly with Harry. And sometimes I've noticed at the polo, when the game's finished and we're all filing stories, Harry will come over and sit down on the grass beside you and watch everybody filing. Nobody annoys him or hassles him or says anything to him, and he's just easy going. Whereas William is very uptight, very private, very wary of the media. There is very little to separate William and Harry, except the one distinction between them is William's ability to keep his life private and out of the headlines. He learned that from an early age. I think because he was that much older when his parents were going through their terrible times in the 1990s, he resolved not to allow his life to become tabloid fodder, if you like, in the way that his mothers and fathers had. Charles has been blamed for Harry's frequent misdemeanours. Has he really neglected his parental duties? Prince Charles isn't the strongest of parents, and he's always said, you know, anything for a peaceful life, what can I do? But I think that when the ground rule should have been laid with William and Harry was the time that Charles and Diana were having terrible problems within their marriage, and I think it's too late now. I think he could have had a lot more guidance, especially from his father. He has veered off the rails because he hasn't had the father figure there all the time when he's needed him. Harry's misbehaviour needs to be curbed if he's to develop into a reliable support for Charles and William in their time as kings. The omens have not been good. How can he be turned around? I think there is enough resource within the royal family and probably somewhere deep within Harry that will pull him back. I don't think he's going to run off and become a dissolute young man. I think he will be brought back, and I think it'll be the army that does it to him. I think it'll instil the discipline that at the moment he left. These are the sons of a flawed father and a fated mother. William is preparing himself for his destiny as king. But does a fault line run through Harry's personality? Only time will tell.