The Duke of Sussex entitled his memoir Spare as he is second to William in line to the throne and now a royal expert has told how Princess Diana was worried about his sense of “inadequacy” as a child

Prince Harry had a “feeling of inadequacy” compared to William even as a young child that concerned Diana, a royal expert has claimed.

The Duke of Sussex has had a frictious relationship with the Royal Family since leaving for the United States where he has been critical of his previous way of life in interviews with American media.

And in his memoir titled Spare he discussed his upbringing where he was given the nickname that was the title of the book by his father Charles. Harry claimed Charles said to Princess Diana: “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare – my work is done.”

In the book he expresses his resentment to the nickname and the way he would always be playing second fiddle to William as he writes about his childhood and royal role.

And royal biographer Ingrid Seward has said that as a young child, Diana was worried that Harry felt inadequate compared to William. She told of a time when William was mentioned to Harry when he was at school and he reacted angrily.

“[Diana] was very concerned about [Harry’s] feeling of inadequacy with William. Even when they were very little, when Harry went to Miss Minors, which was the baby school, after William had been there, the teacher there said to him ‘here Harry, play with this clay, William used to be really good at making model figures’,” Ms Seward told The Sun.

“Harry threw it down and said ‘no!’, so from a very young age, Harry felt inadequate. It was nothing to do with Diana, nothing to do with Charles, but it was just there.” The Duke of Sussex used the tell-all tome to also make various claims about his family including that William called his wife Meghan Markle ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’ and pushed him into a dog bowl. Among other allegations he also said that Charles refused to allow Meghan to join him in Scotland as the late Queen was dying.

Next month a paperback version of Spare is due to be released. Usually, when a paperback version of a non-fiction book is released, additional chapters or updated information is included in the new format. However, the paperback version of Spare will not contain any new information. It will have the same cover image in a newly designed package and the “contents of the book are unchanged”.

Since the release of Spare, things seem to have gone from bad to worse for relations between Harry and his father and older brother. When it comes to Harry and William, their feud, brewing before the book was released, has become even more frosty. According to The Sunday Times, it is understood the brothers last spoke at their grandmother the late Queen’s funeral in September 2022 – and even then, according to Harry’s memoir, they “barely exchanged a word”.