When he was a kid, Prince William would brag about punishing people as king

One of the things we’ve learned about Prince William and Prince Harry’s relationship over the years is that William was often just as “bad” as Harry, but Harry usually got the blame, or was made to publicly atone for his bad behavior in ways William rarely had to. It is the heir-and-spare dynamic, and it played out between the brothers even when they were little boys. Even today, William constantly deflects from his own “bad behavior” by throwing his younger brother under the proverbial bus. All of which to say, William was a “holy terror” as a boy. Just as he’s a holy terror now. He learned early on that he was “special” because of a fluke of birth order, and he’s always lorded that over everyone.

Prince William was a “holy terror” as a toddler. In fact, even Queen Elizabeth complained to Prince Philip that their grandson was “out of control,” writes Tina Brown in her book, “The Palace Papers,” out Tuesday.

“She was not amused that he loved to say, ‘When I am king, I’m going to make a new rule that…,’” Brown writes. Diana admitted that when she and Charles returned from a royal tour of Canada in 1983, William, whom they had nicknamed “Wombat,” was turning into “a holy terror — dashing about bumping into tables and lamps, breaking everything in sight. By the time he was four, he had the unattractive habit of yapping at his nanny, Barbara Barnes, ‘No one tells me what to do! When I am king I will have you punished.’ “

Highgrove guards grew weary of the youngster constantly squirting them with a water gun and at pre-school he was infamously known as “Basher Wills.”

However, around the age of six, William began to behave and Harry morphed into an “exuberant imp of misrule” who once smeared sheep dung over his father’s suit as he was about to board a helicopter for an official trip. “Look at me!” Charles is said to have wailed. “I am absolutely covered in sheep sh-t!”

As William grew older, he became a sounding board for Diana whom she saw as her “most trusted confidant” and “my little wise old man.” “William understood Diana more (than Harry), but idealized her less,” Brown writes. “He was privy to her volatile love life. He knew the tabloids made her life hell, but he also knew she colluded with them.”

[From Page Six]

“When I am king, I’m going to make a new rule that…” and “No one tells me what to do! When I am king I will have you punished…” They could all see the seed of the man William would become – petty, vindictive, punitive, power-hungry, short-sighted. If you ask me, William is still that boy, dreaming of the day when he gets to make the rules and punish his enemies. He still believes that when he’s king, he’ll finally make them all pay.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

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104 Responses to “When he was a kid, Prince William would brag about punishing people as king”

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  1. Indica says:

    I think no one has explained to him that, well, he will have no power. No one is going to jump and change laws or throw people in the tower because he has yet-another-tantrum.

    One day he’s going to seriously slip and throw a tantrum in public in front of cameras. I can’t wait… (I may be a bad person)

    • Mindy_Dopple says:

      Indica! 😂 (love the name)

      I hope he slips in public too. I highly doubt that would ever happen but man do I want to see him throw a tantrum. I truly think he hates M&H so much because they know him at his core. H more than M of course but they both see him for who he truly is on the inside and it drives him mad.

      I am not an expert on Diana history but did she really over share with William. Is that confirmed by her or is it just a long standing rumor circulated and kept alive by “royal sources”?

      • AnnaKist says:

        Ha! I’d love to see a Willy tantrum as well! And it could well happen – He starts the day in a bad mood, he looks outside and sees the rosebush. That makes him mardy. He scolds Kate Because he doesn’t like the dress she has chosen for the day’s event. They have words, but the die is cast, despite her caving in and pulling out yet another new coatdress… they finally arrive at the event, a place he does not want to be. He could have been enjoying hours of fun playing Fortnite, instead he’s stuck watching a group of older people using art as a form of therapy for their mental health. Off they go for their walk about. Someone stops Kate and engages her in conversation after handing her a bunch of flowers. Cameras are focused on her. She’s in her element chatting to a fan as if she was a popstar. Willie can see how fast people are making over her and he becomes incandescent with rage. His jaw is set. Oh ,it’s on…. Yeah, it could happen.

        I remember hearing this story several times – William saying he’d lock people up when he was king. One school of thought was that he was an entitled little brat, while another school of thought was that William is “so cute, and he says the cutest things”. He might have been cute at one stage, but most children lose the cute factor very early in life, especially the precocious ones.

      • Wiglet Watcher says:

        Mindy
        It’s a long standing rumor. As we can look back at timelines William was aware at school mostly. His parent’s shared custody in the few weekends he had away. As public figures and with the internet it’s getting easier and easier to disprove the revision of Diana that the BRF worked so hard on.

      • Tessa says:

        Penny J started the overburdening stories.it is left out how Charles used his sons to promote Camilla after diana dief

    • ILady Digby says:

      I am expecting him to be caught on camera rowing with Kate and actually telling her not to laugh like a baboon anymore and STOP clutching my hand or else its the tower for you and Carole!!

    • Weatherby says:

      Sometimes it seems like the ROTA treats Prince William the same way that aides treated President Trump: he demands loyalty and obedience.

      The constance with which Harry is denigrated, most times as a non sequitur, tells me that they are aware they are speaking to an audience of one.
      Like Trump, William seems to consume media intensely. And throw raging tantrums when he is not immediately granted his way.

      In this comparison, Kate is Melania. And “I really don’t care do you” is basically Kate’s life motto at this point. She cares about how she is perceived (see the gossamer sheen and ridiculous face contortions), but cares nothing at all for the substance of anything. Pathetic pair if you ask me.

      But all the same, it’s getting really hard to read these articles about William that constantly diminish Harry, for no particular reason whatsoever.

      • WHAT says:

        Kate is only like Melania in behavior and they both have copied successful, articulate women of color due to the jealousy in themselves that they are nothing but clothes 🐎 and have nothing else to show for. Both of their husbands have cheated on them and treats them terrible in public. But Melania has something over Kate she is pretty AND Melania can dress her tale off something Kate will never be known for no matter how hard the rota tries.

  2. Jessamine says:

    I will rag on PW as an adult all day long, but honestly none of us should be judged on our toddlerhood

    • lanne says:

      It’s not so much that he’s being judged on his toddlerhood. It’s that what we saw in his toddlerhood played out through his adult life. Will-di Amin is the epitome of what happens when a person’s behavior as a toddler is indulged over his entire life. He’s the perfect example of what happens when a child is not given any kind of boundaries or corrections. It’s completely developmentally appropriate for toddlers to think they are the centers of the world. In their worlds, they are the center. “terrible 2s” and “threenagers” come from the fact that children are learning they are NOT the center of the world, and they tend not to like that too much. Kim Jong Will is the world’s oldest 2 year old. He can’t regulate his emotions, he can’t stand anyone else getting attention other than him, he’s petty, vindictive, and entitled. It’s not so much that people are hounding him for acting like a 2 year old when he was 2. It’s that the behavior he showed as a 2 year old is still manifest in this almost 40 year old.

      • C-Shell says:

        This is a perfect comment.

      • Bettyrose says:

        Right? It’s almost like raising someone to believe they’ve been chose by divine providence to be better than every else is problematic.

      • Lionel says:

        @Lanne: Exactly! You’ve explained the issue more beautifully than I ever could. Everyone talks about Diana as if she was god’s gift to motherhood, but when I hear stories like this I wonder if she ever corrected William at all.

      • Emma says:

        Children’s individual personalities are evident quite early, and you can’t generalize about ALL children being selfish bullies like William (or Andrew, who was reportedly quite cruel as a child), because children are individuals and their environment also plays a role.

        Of course no one should be harshly judgmental of children or teens, who deserve loving guidance and help, but “The child is father to the man” is axiomatic for a reason.

      • swirlmamad says:

        @Lionel, we will never know, and certainly, Diana was not perfect, but even if she tried her best to instill some humility into William, he never had a chance as everyone else in his life (father, grandparents, caregivers, aides and the rest of the Firm) would never hear of telling him “no”. So clearly anything Diana would have tried to teach him would have never stuck.

      • Debbie says:

        @Swirlmamad: Good points you made. I would also add that I was under the impression that William and 2 parents, not just a mother. Are fathers not allowed or expected to correct their children in England, or did the poster above just want to knock Diana for some reason?

      • Nic919 says:

        Let’s not forget that William was treated as special and a favourite by a lot of people in his life, including the Queen mother. She would exclude Harry from things because he wasn’t the heir. So Diana was dealing with an uphill climb with all the institutional forces that protected William along with the queen mother.

      • Dot Gingell says:

        Perfectly explained. W was groomed and indulged from birth and spent a lot of 1:1 time with his great grandmother and grandmother to prepare him for monarchy. This overt discrimination and favouritism became even more apparent after Harry was born. Bulliam’s been told from the very start how important, special and powerful he is. Most of the adults around him should have been dealing with the ‘terrible twos’ and ‘threenage’ years but I think the only one who tried was his mother.

    • VivaAviva says:

      Thank you. When I was little, I was going to be President and make all sorts of pro-me laws.

      I grew up.

      Yes, he’s a jackbutt now, but I am uncomfortable holding little children’s age-appropriate-if-bratty behavior against them as adults.

    • Catlady says:

      Where were his parents to correct that behavior? That’s how children learn.

      • Cessily says:

        Makes you wonder if he had constructive parenting and had consequences for his actions if he might have grown into a happy adult?

      • equality says:

        Yes. This doesn’t make Will or Harry look bad that they got away with misbehaving as children. It makes the parents or grandparents who should have been correcting the behavior look weak.

    • BrainFog 💉💉💉😷 says:

      Hard agree. He was a child, and that kind of behaviour is exactly what kids do. Pretty sure all of us have said stupider stuff. Children are stupid, cruel and selfish by nature.
      I would not judge people for their behaviour at any age < 20.

    • Chloe says:

      The problem is: with william his anger issues have followed him into adulthood.

      I wonder what tricks charles has up has sleeve after the queen passes. Because this whole “william the incandescent” narrative is coming from Camp Charles

      • aftershocks says:

        ^^ @Jessamine: “… none of us should be judged on our toddlerhood.”

        Everyone has made great comments in regard to your observation. Certainly, it’s true that toddlers are at a stage of growth that can be hard to handle for any parent. However it is also true that personality and behavior patterns can be detected in children as young as two and three years old. So Will’s rambunctiousness and his aggressive comments were some indication of his personality traits.

        Everyone has good and bad aspects to their personalities. It’s just important for a child engaging in childish behavior to be guided and disciplined to grow into absorbing and displaying the positive traits. The issue is that Will got away often with acting poorly. He did calm down a bit as he got older. We shouldn’t forget how attractive and charming Will seemed to be circa 16 to 20 years old. The problems in C&D’s marriage, their eventual breakup, and of course Diana’s death are situations that negatively impacted Will’s and Harry’s formative years.

        IMO, Will should never have been told as a toddler that he was going to be King one day. Apparently, the Cambridges waited until George was around 7 to explain the hereditary burden to him. OTOH, the Cambridge kids had to already be aware of having a special status. They had some sense of their great-grandmother being the Queen, but likely couldn’t formulate the full significance at very young ages.

    • MsIam says:

      Nobody is judging William on his toddler issues. They are pointing out that Grown up William is not that different from toddler William. He’s probably even meaner. At least toddler William had Diana to put him in check. Now there is no one because it seems Keen and her family only encourage the awful behavior.

      • Debbie says:

        Yeah, it seems that some are being deliberately obtuse because I don’t see anyone saying anything critical of a child, just the adult behavior.

    • Becks1 says:

      You shouldn’t be judged on your toddlerhood because you have grown, changed, learned the rules, have a better understanding of what is and is not appropriate behavior, etc.

      If you haven’t really changed since your toddlerhood then you’re going to be judged on it because that’s who you are now.

    • notasugarhere says:

      ‘Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.’ – Aristotle

      • aftershocks says:

        ^^ Yep. Robert Jobson wrote as recently as 2017 after Will’s Dad-dancing ski trip with the guys in lieu of attending Commonwealth Day Services, that “the Queen and Prince Charles have given up trying to talk to Will. He never listens to them. They hope he will learn from his mistakes.”

        Betty and Chuck ‘hoping’ in regard to Will, is beyond hope by this stage.

  3. iforget says:

    I always take a deep breath when I look at a picture of him. He looks so tightly wound up. I guess that’s one positive that he’s my FFK (blech). He reminds me to relax my shoulders & jaw. There, that’s my nice comment for the day lol. Gonna reward myself with a chocolate muffin now 😛

  4. equality says:

    So when PH was 3 he smeared sheep dung on PC’s suit? Where on earth was his helicopter taking off from that PH had sheep dung available? This is as bad as Scammy’s book complaining about Meghan as a toddler.

    • ThatsNotOkay says:

      And Harry was clearly crying out for attention from an aloof parent. Don’t need a psychologist to tell you that. But instead the parent makes it all about how the child messed up his suit, woe is me. The narcissism runs deep in the Windsors. Luckily Harry is full Spencer.

      • aftershocks says:

        Harry has some of Philip in him too, which is not a bad thing, since it’s mostly physical characteristics, and no nonsense leadership type of personality. This toughness is balanced by Diana’s empathy and genuine caring for others. 😊

    • Becks1 says:

      That made me laugh. (I’m assuming they were at Highgrove.) That, to me, is kind of typical three year old behavior (well maybe a little stinkier than most, lol) and since we haven’t heard of Harry smearing sheep dung on anyone else’s suit since then, I’m going to assume he grew out of that behavior.

      • equality says:

        It also begs the question of why was nobody watching a 3 year old to keep him from playing in poop?

    • Carty says:

      I tend to believe that never happened. I’ve followed since C & D’s wedding and Never heard or read about this story. Keep in mind they had no problem posting in the media any slight transgression or misbehaving of Harry. Never once anything about Harry slinging poop on his dad’s jacket. I call BS

    • Cairidh says:

      I’ve read that story in a book somewhere, but I can’t remember which one. It was at Highgrove. It might have been the housekeepers diary book.

  5. Denise says:

    I mean realistically kids do that. I don’t like Will at all but you can’t fault a person for what they were saying as children.

    • Merricat says:

      You certainly can if that behavior has not changed in adulthood, and it is abundantly clear that it has not.

      • VivaAviva says:

        I disagree. We can fault him for not being willing or able to grow and change as an adult, a husband, a father, a future monarch. But we can fault him for that without saying “clearly the signs were always there,” because you could say that about literally anyone.

        Those weren’t signs of anything other than him being a normal, ill-behaved toddler and preschooler. My current preschooler is a terror and I’m a strict, old-school mama. All my kids went through this. It’s completely normal.

        The abnormal part is that he behaves this way as an adult, and that’s what we should focus on. As a parent, criticizing age-appropriate behavior in children feels really gross to me.

    • aftershocks says:

      @Denise: “I mean realistically kids do that. I don’t like Will at all but you can’t fault a person for what they were saying as children.”

      I agree that children simply have to be guided and taught in the right way about how to act, and the importance of courtesy and kindness. If Diana taught Harry “a certain set of values,” as Harry said she did, then Will was included in those teachings.

      It just seems that after his mother died, the better angels of Will’s character got lost due to constant coddling by courtiers, and palace p.r., added to adoration and false embiggening by the global media (due to his birthright status and to being the eldest son of Diana).

  6. OriginalLaLa says:

    I call bullshit on the sheep poop story – I take care of rescued sheep so I spend *a lot* of time with them, their poop is not “spreadable” nor “smearable” , it’s small round hard pebbles. now cow manure, I’d believe that lol

    • SarahCS says:

      That’s what i was wondering about, unless the sheep in question had an upset stomach. To get into the practicalities, yes he could have take some and rubbed it against the fabric but it wouldn’t have smeared like say dog poo. It would have probably left a smell but yeah, some holes in this story.

      • twoz says:

        Wendy Berry told a similar story in The Housekeeper’s Diary, except Charles found it hilarious and he either did a quick change or a fast wipe down.
        It’s after midnight here so I’ll dig out the book and post the relevant passage in the morning unless someone does it first. 😆

  7. A says:

    Strikes me that William terrorizing everyone as a young kid shows more how his parents failed to parent him rather than being a sure sign of unchangeable character flaws

    • Merricat says:

      That would be true if William had shown growth as an adult. At 40, it’s no longer your parents fault that you are an incandescent ass.

      • A says:

        ???? It’s true regardless of how William acts now. It’s true of Harry’s upbringing as well, if that suit story is anywhere near true. The difference is one brother took responsibility for himself and the other has not. Where am I blaming William’s parents for his current behavior?
        What I’m saying is that basically all kids can be mean but not every kid turns into a mean adult. At the time it was his parents’ responsibility to correct him. What really could we say otherwise? That William was rotten from the start and could never be anything other than rotten? No. Those anecdotes show how his parents failed to teach him to be better at the time. His current behavior shows that he doesn’t want to be better now.

    • Jaded says:

      Carrying that kind of bullying, childish behaviour into adulthood speaks volumes about his current mental state. There are parts of the human brain (the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex) that don’t mature until our early to mid-twenties. That explains reckless, thoughtless behaviour as kids and teens. If those parts of the brain, for whatever reason, don’t mature, the impulsive, immature, self-absorbed behaviours continue. I honestly think that’s Bulliam’s problem — he could very well have BPD/NPD. Childhood neglect or trauma can be a cause of this but from what I’ve read, there can be a genetic component as well. Under the right circumstances you can circumvent the development of these problems with the right emotional support growing up. Who knows what created this monster but he sounds like he could use some appropriate therapy but, unlike his brother, refuses to accept it.

      • Lexistential says:

        He did get smacked in the head with a golf club. I wonder if that injury affected his neurological development; if it did, his entitlement, volatility, and lack of empathy have a biological root in him aside from being culturally and socially upheld by everyone around him.

      • Deering24 says:

        I’ve thought for a while William has at least one untreated mental problem. And it is no stretch whatsoever to picture him as a tinpot dictator. The world is lucky that as king, he won’t have much power—or nukes. 😳😳

      • aftershocks says:

        @Jaded: “… he sounds like he could use some appropriate therapy but, unlike his brother, refuses to accept it.”

        I believe Will has been conditioned by the institution of monarchy (and by his father’s emotional distancing) to deny that he as FFK needs help with mental therapy. That’s for spare Harry, whom Will likely expected would always be his fall guy, and would forever serve as the royal scapegoat.

    • Tessa says:

      I think will wanted to be treated as more special than harry and resented harry also getting attention

    • aftershocks says:

      @Merricat said: “William [has not] shown growth as an adult. At 40, it’s no longer your parents fault that you are an incandescent ass.”

      Yes, true. But Will was also failed by adults at certain stages of his youthful development. Another thing we might consider is the astrological aspects of Will’s personality. Like both George and Louis, Will was born on the cusp of two signs. George is Cancer-Leo; Louis is Aries-Taurus; and Will is Gemini-Cancer.

      The listed weaknesses for Gemini-Cancer seem to match some of the public and private behaviors exhibited by Will:

      “Moody, emotional, scatterbrained, selfish, depressive, self-destructive… You love talking with others about their feelings and helping them through their emotional difficulties, but do you ever take your own advice? You keep your own needs and desires very guarded and aren’t keen on expressing yourself as often as you encourage others to. This emotional blockage can make you moody and overly sensitive. It can affect your relationships and prevents you from achieving the things you really want in life.”

  8. Andrew's_Nemesis says:

    You know, I am seriously considering moving to France.
    I once used to love my country, the good bits of its history, its tolerance and diversity. Then increasingly far right governments started rearing their heads, aided and abetted by a media that were in turn supine and vicious, and the mood grew dark. Discrimination ran rampant. And nowhere is it more embodied than the Royal Family.
    The fact that a narcissistic, vitriolic, racist, dull, unintelligent, untalented and lazy miscreant like PWT can enjoy such power simply because he was shoved out of a privileged woman’s uterus makes me sick. His misogynoir towards Meghan and her unborn child, his nasty little campaigns against her and his brother, his use of the Press as a weapon, his intolerance and disrespect nauseates me. He will NEVER be ‘my’ king. He deserves no respect, because he gives none. He has always been enabled to be a petulant brat, and his eagerness to get his hands on the reins of power in order to punish others is revolting. I’ve had enough. I’m out.

    • Merricat says:

      Agreed.

    • Lady D says:

      I’m sorry this is happening to you, Andrew’s_Nemesis. Leaving your home land against your wishes is really upsetting. I hope Karma explains all the laws of justice to him and his useless racist wife.

    • VivaAviva says:

      May I ask why France? I’m just curious. As a Black Jewish woman, I don’t think I would feel safe there longer than vacation.

      • Andrew's_Nemesis says:

        Hello, VivaAviva! I’m Jewish too, and the a/s does bother me – I’ve had negative experiences in Paris in particular. Though I don’t practise, my Judaism is…intuitively me, for want of a better description. But I speak French, study and teach its history and language, and know the culture. There are a number of likeminded Brit expats all across Normandy, so it wouldn’t be worlds away from ‘home’. I just feel that the awfulness of the British class system, which enables people like the hideous FFK, Boris Johnson and his front bench of utterly awful people, the hash they’ve made of Brexit and Britain’s steady decline, the ravages done to the NHS, the working class, to immigrants and elderly, the sheer carelessness surrounding Covid, the unimaginably inflated gas and electric bills, etc., have made Britain a pretty unpleasant place to live.

    • swirlmamad says:

      I feel and completely empathize with your disgust, anger, weariness, and disillusionment because I felt exactly the same when Trump won the election in 2016. It’s an awful feeling, to lose such faith in your place of birth.

  9. SarahLee says:

    I’m not going to judge him by a toddler tantrum. However, by all accounts that temper has remained. Diana did a terrible thing to him by treating him as her confidante “wise old man.” He was a child – he was her child – and I can understand why Harry idealizes her more than William does.

    That being said, I’m sure he’ll still do everything within his power (he will hold the purse strings for all the royals, after all), to reward and punish, so it is good that Harry is across the world and doesn’t need him.

    • Tessa says:

      That story about diana is from Charles spin doctors to put her down
      Diana worked and had friends and will was away at school

    • Tessa says:

      If diana were still around I doubt will would have been gotten away with his treatment of harry and meghan

  10. Oh_Hey says:

    I don’t get this revisionist history we’re Harry was also a pain as a kid. Diana was on record saying that Harry had the king temperament but the birth order made “Basher” king instead.

    Also anyone remember a story where wills won’t go inside as a kid, Diana says ok Harry and are going to play, and Basher starts wilding? I thought that was also reported but it may have been a fever dream.

    • Chaine says:

      It’s an old video. William didn’t want to come inside so Diana said that Harry would go in and have all the fun by himself and William started shrieking. It’s at the end of this clip here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qZP9kc1qR_M

      • VivaAviva says:

        That seems like pretty normal 4 year old behavior to me and his mother handled it well. Don’t give in to his demands, but don’t withhold kindness once he’s doing the correct thing (helping him get his beret, putting a kind hand on his back as they entered the house).

  11. Sofia says:

    Yes all kids throw toddler tantrums. I’m sure plenty of people here swore that they would be President/King/Queen and make all sorts of stupid laws but the difference is that most people grow out of that and realise that it’s not good behaviour.

    Some like William do not and that’s what the issue is.

  12. Em says:

    He’s clenching is jaw so hard in those pics. Yikess

  13. ILady Digby says:

    Does W have a mentor/ therapist in his life who could act as sounding board and guide him towards coping better with life? Is he close to his father in law? Does he have a good circle of friends around him or are they all sycophants? Were Diana and Harry the only people to be honest with him? How does Kate cope with his bad temper? Tantrums in a kid are natural but not in a 40 year old.

    • Red Weather Tiger says:

      Can soneone point me to the credible evidence that Diana used William as a therapist and sounding board? That has been the narrative forever, but where did it originate?

      • Sid says:

        I want to say it became a thing in the years after Diana died when the press started their revisionist anti-Diana campaign as Charles was trying to clean up his (and eventually Camilla’s) rep. It never made sense to me as from the time he was around 8 or so Willileaks was spending most of his time at boarding school, away from both parents. I don’t know when there would have been time for Diana to treat him like her quasi-therapist.

      • Jais says:

        Did it come from TB or was it Ingrid Seward that wrote another one of the diana books? I don’t know what evidence is provided beyond sources said etc.

      • Tessa says:

        From Charles camp.i think it was penny and Ingrid

  14. Rai says:

    Harry said William was trapped. Out of all the things said during the interview, that is the piece that always stands out… he’s been trapped since birth and his behavior makes it clear the cage is too small. And at some point, Harry will be called upon to contain the damage. This is when Charles will be able to bring the Sussexes back into the fold. How he counteracts all the damage done by the British media will be the interesting part.

    • Merricat says:

      Doc, I don’t think the Sussexes are ever coming back. (apologies to Come Back, Little Sheba)

    • MaryContrary says:

      They’re not going back-why would they?

    • lanne says:

      It is NOT Harry’s responsibility to “save” his brother. If Charles hasn’t been able to counteract the damage this far, what makes you think he’ll be able to later? If Harry was truly that important to the family, then they would have treated him better.

    • MsIam says:

      “Harry will be called upon to contain the damage”. You’re joking right? They have a whole institution of ” loyal, hardworking sycophants “. They had better get busy. ” Clean up on aisle 7!” is their job, not Harry’s.

      • Rai says:

        No, I am dead serious. One consistent message we read is Harry was intended to be William’s rock in an unsafe space. Just like the consistent message of “once the Queen is gone, things will change.” I absolutely read that as Charles wasn’t the one who nixed half in, half out. There are practical, rational reasons to encourage the Sussexes to serve as part time royals…financial, global reach and modernity, and William with his issues. Of course Charles is going to reconsider. Wouldn’t you?

        And long term, it’s a win/win. Harry is a blood royal and that nest of vipers is his family. He and Meghan will return but on their own terms and unfortunately, the monarchy will benefit from it.

      • GuestWho says:

        @Rai – if the royal family had stopped their media attacks after M&H left the UK, if they had stood up for them one time, if they hadn’t let their flunkies make up baseless bullying accusations or testify against Meghan for the Daily Mail, I could see them considering a half in/half out set up in the future. Unfortunately for the RF, they let Cain and Unable double down, with an able assist from Fred and Gladys. The choice is not Charles’. He had his shot. Harry is not going to let his family be the scapegoat – because that’s what they ultimately always wanted Harry to be. They need to make Harry and his family look bad so FFK looks good in comparison.

        Harry would be a fool to put his family at TOB’s mercy in any way – and over the past few years the world has definitively seen that Harry is no fool. They are free, booked and busy. There is no going back to being working royals in any capacity. That ship sailed.

      • Deering24 says:

        Who the heck wants a nest of vipers as a family? God, I hate, hate, hate that “Well, even though they treat you like shit, they are still fambleeee!” No, if they treat you like garbage, they are garbage not worth your time. Full stop. And Harry was smart enough to realize this before his kids suffered the fallout.

    • windyriver says:

      I think he said both William and Charles were trapped, as Harry himself had been – by the institution of the monarchy. And a large part of Harry’s hatred of that institution had to do with the layer upon layer of organizational protocol, hierarchy, and past history that make up The Firm. And members of that firm have their own vested interests, so that more often than not it seems to be the entity controlling the individuals who are the actual face of the institution. The behavior of the BM is only a symptom of the very deep dysfunction that exists, it’s not the cause of “the damage”.

      Anyway, once TQ is gone, how much will Harry care if The Firm, and the monarchy survive?

    • Jaded says:

      Harry was a victim of his own family’s resentment and mendacity. Why on earth would he come back into the fold to save it? His father and brother turned on him, his wife and baby, he owes them nothing. He ain’t coming back EVER.

      • aftershocks says:

        Right @Jaded and others. I’m not sure where @Rai is coming from with his comments. Half-in, half-out was rejected, and there’s no going back for the Sussexes, and no renegotiating by Chuck after Betty passes and London Bridge Is Falling Down goes into full operation.

        Furthermore, I don’t think it was the Queen who nixed ‘half-in, half-out,’ like the rota and the firm want us to believe.

    • Gee says:

      All I can say is, you are highly delusional if you think they will ever return into the fold. That will never happen out of all the probabilities. It’s nanda, zero, never.

  15. SKE says:

    I think you meant to say “heir and the spare”, not heir and space”!

  16. TIFFANY says:

    All Tampons had to say to the kid he kept around is, ‘If you are not in therapy by the end of business, I am cutting off you and your wife’s credit cards’.

  17. Elvie says:

    I have a deep sense that whilst Harry and Meghan were trying to exit the Royal Family William uttered something along the lines “When I am King, you’ll only receive money from …” and it contributed to the financially independent manifesto on the website.

  18. Cessily says:

    They anger and rage radiates from his photos and clips of his appearances no one needs to be a body expert to see that, and I don’t think this is the first time I heard that, is her source an old article or interview?

  19. jazzbaby1 says:

    There’s a reason Diana used to call his younger brother “Good King Harry.” That said, I’ve occasionally wondered if Camilla’s titles will be all that safe when Chuckles passes.

  20. Mrazi says:

    I really don’t like this at all. I am firmly in the Sussex camp and dislike pretty much the whole royal family for how they treated them .

    That said, I can’t abide by drawing a straight line from William’s childhood to the person he is today. Someone put those ideas in his head as a little kid. The failure here is on the parenting and the environment he was in at that time. Go off on him all day long about the adult that he is but leave his childhood out of it especially the fact that he was a four year old at the time.

    • Becks1 says:

      Of course the failure was on the parenting and the environment but that produced his childhood and his childhood produced him as an adult.

      His behavior as a child would be an amusing anecdote except that he never grew out of it, never changed, never bothered to learn that “those ideas” someone put in his head weren’t right, etc.

      No one cares what he acted like as a child in general, we care because there IS a line between his behavior as a child and his behavior as an adult.

  21. Over it says:

    When I grow up I will become a good man was never a thought william ever had

  22. aquarius64 says:

    Well William is Brat-zilla now.

  23. Lila says:

    Thank goodness William doesn’t live in a time when the king can behead people. I can only imagine how horrifically bloody his rule would have been.

  24. Muphy says:

    Too bad Tommy Lascelles isn’t around to deal with him. He’d put him in his place quick.

  25. LRob says:

    I’ve said many times both w&h were damaged as children. Their paths diverged not because of their inherent roles which were always different. They diverged because H works hard at facing his pain and vulnerability head on and seeking treatment, sharing, and working with others to heal. W rages and blames and continues to damage himself by not facing his past and his failings honestly and with help. There is absolutely no reason Diana’s son has to rule and abuse like others before him. W is making cruel self-destructive choices, and it shows.

  26. equality says:

    So Will magically started behaving at 6? Or he figured out (as many children do, not just FFK’s) that blaming or instigating a younger sibling to do things was easier than getting in trouble yourself?

  27. Serena says:

    That makes so much sense.
    Alas, this is not the Middle Age and William is powerless so no dungeons for H&M (altho he would love it so much).
    The only thing he can do is making the monarchy fall but he’s already doing a pretty good job with that.

  28. JFerber says:

    He’s punishing people now when he’s not king. Imagine him, now, times 1,000? Will he bring back the beheadings at the Tower of London. Frigging psychopath.