Prince Harry has made a heartbreaking admission about his time in the Royal Family as he said “distance was essential”.

The Duke of Sussex stepped down as a senior working royal four years ago and has opened up about life behind Palace walls in the years since. Harry has made a number of bombshell claims about the royals in various interviews and even released an explosive memoir, Spare. In the book, he said could “never cross that chasm” and be close with his family. Harry even claimed to have been denied hugs and kisses when he was a child.

Harry wrote: “As a Royal you were always taught to maintain a buffer zone between you and the rest of Creation. Even working a crowd you always kept a discreet distance between Yourself and Them.” He said distance was “an essential bit of being royal,” and revealed it didn’t just relate to crowds. He explained: “Family included distance as well. No matter how much you might love someone, you could never cross that chasm between, say, monarch and child. Or Heir and Spare. Physically, but also emotionally.”

He said he wasn’t given the chance to be close to the Royal Family ( Image: Getty Images)

Harry said his brother Prince William would often ask him to give him space and said the older generation of the Royal Family “maintained a nearly zero-tolerance prohibition on all physical contact”. This included no hugs, no kisses and no pats. On special occasions, however, the Duke of Sussex said their might be “a light touching of cheeks.” In Spare, Harry detailed his childhood in the public eye as well as his experience with drugs in his older years. He also opened up about an explosive row he had with his brother William, during which the Prince of Wales allegedly called Harry’s wife Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”. Harry claims his brother then “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor”.