Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton is a now-retired royal courtier. From 2005 through 2013, he served as private secretary to Prince William and Prince Harry, and the then-Duchess of Cambridge as well (following Will and Kate’s 2011 wedding). He was there for pretty much all of William and Harry’s 20s, when the institution bizarrely insisted that the brothers HAD to share an office. I’m still aghast at that, btw. That all of these alleged gold-standard royal advisors, bureaucrats and military men thought it was super-smart to keep Harry and William tied to each other and sharing an office well into their 30s. Anyway, JLP is now retired from royal work and he’s written a novel. To promote the book, he recently chatted with the Times of London, and of course much of the interview was about William, Harry and Kate. Some highlights:

JLP on William: “I always saw him as the Lion King,” he says of William — a natural born leader surveying his territory from a rock. Harry, meanwhile, was more of a mischievous cub, scampering around. “I loved them both,” he says sincerely.

On William & Harry’s military careers: “Brave guys,” he says of both William and Harry. “When they were soldiers, it was important that they did it right and properly. That’s how I saw that ten years I had [with them], primarily to get it right so they could say, as my Anglo-Irish father used to say, ‘I’ve known the days. I’ve done it.’ Harry went on operations in Afghanistan twice and [for William] you can look anybody in the eye if you’re flying a Sea King on a fixed bearing through a force 8, force 9, out in the middle of the Irish Sea or the north Atlantic to pick up a sick crewman or fly up against the cliff face of Snowdonia in gusts.”

He wanted William to serve in Afghanistan too: Lowther-Pinkerton is widely credited for getting Harry into Afghanistan under the radar for two successful tours of duty. He now reveals that he also “battled” officials repeatedly to give William the chance to serve in Afghanistan but was “blocked” on security grounds.

On William & Harry’s estrangement: When I ask about Harry, his rift with William and whether he thinks the brothers will be reconciled, Lowther-Pinkerton frowns so deeply that his forehead crinkles as if he’s trying to solve a very difficult problem. “Do you know what?” he says finally. “I think I’d better steer clear of that Harry issue.” After a pause, he adds, “What I would say is that I was and am very fond of him. He has huge redeeming features and I’m a perennial optimist.”

What Harry wrote about him in Spare: Even Prince Harry, who famously raged against the “men in grey suits”, admired Lowther-Pinkerton. In his memoir, Spare, Harry described him as “deeply calm, slightly stiff”. Harry adds, “Despite his spit and polish, however, his enamelled exterior, JLP was a force, the product of Britain’s finest military training, which meant, among other things, that he didn’t deal in bulls–t. He didn’t give it, didn’t take it and everyone, far and wide, seemed to know.” Years later, Harry tasked Lowther-Pinkerton with obtaining information about his mother’s death. In his memoir, Harry wrote: “He said he’d decided against showing me all the police files. He’d gone through and removed the more… ‘challenging’ ones. ‘For your sake.’ I was frustrated. But I didn’t argue. If JLP didn’t think I could handle them, then I probably couldn’t. I thanked him for protecting me.”

On Princess Kate: Another married couple reminds him of his parents: Kate and William — I hope without the potato throwing, although I expect the princess would have a pretty good aim too, if needed. “She’s a really cool woman,” he says of the princess. “Amazing. He chose well. I think they’ll be like my mum and dad. I think they’re great.”

[From The Times]

It was clear throughout Spare that then-Prince Charles was largely an absent father, especially after Diana died, and that the institution kept assigning military men to act as surrogate fathers to both William and Harry. JLP was probably the only one who stayed on both Will and Harry’s good side, even if JLP was basically following orders and pushing Harry into as much military service as was allowed. The thing about him wanting William to go to Afghanistan is funny too – as we’ve seen for decades, if William doesn’t want to do something, he’s going to find some excuse. If William wants to do something, he’ll find a way to do it. The problem wasn’t that the institution was so worried about sending William to war, it’s that William didn’t want to go. If he wanted to, he would have. It’s that simple.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.