Since quitting royal life in 2020, Prince Harry has been vocal about what aspects of life as a royal he hasn’t been fond of. In his memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex, 40, implied that he wasn’t fully comfortable at Eton College, a prestigious boarding school for boys, during his teenage years.
While his brother Prince William, 40, seemed to thrive at the school, it seems that this was not the case with Harry, who detailed how he struggled to fit in. According to a former confidante of Princess Diana, Harry’s struggle at Eton was something Princess Diana had “worried” about before the royal even attended the school.
Paul Burrell, who was a royal butler to Princess Diana for 10 years before her 1997 death, has revealed that Diana didn’t want her youngest son to attend Eton as she knew it would be a “difficult path” for Harry.
This is because the late princess had reportedly seen Harry be compared to his brother William throughout his life, and she was sure this would also happen at Eton.
Speaking on behalf of Casino.org, Burrell exclusively revealed to Express.co.uk: “Even when it came to school, she (Diana) worried that Harry would constantly be compared to his brother and judged by William’s standards.
“When they went to Eton, Diana didn’t want Harry to attend Eton; she knew that he would be compared to William, who had gone before him.
“William is much brighter, and he excelled; Harry wasn’t and didn’t. And so, she knew it would be a difficult path for Harry.”
This turned out to be true, with Harry detailing in his bombshell 2023 memoir that he didn’t quite fit in. He also claimed that William was not an attentive brother at school, and instead didn’t want to be seen with his younger sibling.
The duke wrote that the school was “heaven for brilliant boys, it could thus only be purgatory for one very unbrilliant boy”.
He also said that he didn’t fit in to just one group during his time there. He wrote: “Sport, I decided, would be my thing at Eton. Sporty boys were separated into two groups: dry bobs and wet bobs.
“Dry bobs played cricket, football, rugby, or polo. Wet bobs rowed, sailed, or swam. I was a dry who occasionally got wet.”