William and Harry’s ‘PR war’ like brothers George VI and Edward VIII

Tensions between the households of the Wales and the Sussexes will no doubt be reignited after it emerged Prince Harry will release his bombshell memoir Spare in January. In a press release about the book, it was claimed that Spare will take readers “immediately back to one of the most searing images of the 20th century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow-and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling-and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is his story at last.”Harry’s story is a unique one that has been debated for the past two years since he sensationally quit the Firm in 2020, confirming his wish to remove himself, and his family, from the frontline of senior royal duties.He spoke of his frustrations with royal life, while questioning the roles of his brother Prince William and father King Charles III, during a landmark interview with Oprah Winfrey, alongside his wife Meghan Markle on CBS.These remarks demonstrated already tense relations between Harry and the rest of the royal fold, including his older brother William, and his new book may no doubt ensure more damage could be done.Harry and his family put aside any differences that may still be lingering after he appeared alongside William and his wife Kate, Princess of Wales, to greet mourners who had come out in their thousands to mark the Queen’s death. William and Harry in 1986, and George and Edward in 1900 (Image: GETTY) The two princes, Harry and William, share a joke (Image: GETTY) King George with his daughter, the Queen (Image: GETTY)Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk the author said: “It’s the PR war around it. And this is what Edward did with his brother George, or Bertie, he was always trying to upstage him.”If Bertie did something, he would try and get the public’s attention and try and steal the thunder and so something else that would get the publicity.”In Harry’s chat with Oprah, which aired on CBS in 2021, Harry spoke at length about his relationship with the Royal Family.He said: “I was trapped but I didn’t know I was trapped. Like the rest of my family are, my father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave and I have huge compassion for that.DON’T MISS:’Sad and unfulfilled’ portrayal of Prince William torn apart [INSIGHT]Prince Louis has not reached one royal milestone yet [ANALYSIS]Prince William praised for ‘marvellous’ speech at conservation event [LATEST] Prince Edward was king for less than a year (Image: GETTY)”For the family, they very much have this mentality of: ‘This is just how it is. This is how it’s meant to be. You can’t change it. We’ve all been through it’. What was different for me was the race element, because now it wasn’t just about her. It was about what she represented.”While tension continued following the interview’s release, Harry and William displayed harmony when they and their wives put on a public display of unity when speaking to well-wishers following Her Majesty’s death in September.Bertie and Edward, who was also known as David, were equally beset with their differences during their life, and reports show that George VI’s wife Elizabeth was horrified by the way her husband was often spoken to by his older brother.According to a Daily Mail report in 2010, Geordie Greig, a writer and newspaper editor, wrote in a memoir of his grandfather Louis, a naval doctor, how there were “no jibes as cruel as ones made by siblings”, before referencing Bertie and David.He added: “When driving back from an engagement where Bertie had made a speech, David went one step too far – mocking his brother’s speech impediment.” Prince William and Prince Harry attending the Queen’s funeral in September (Image: GETTY)Their relationship was also examined by royal author Christopher Wilson, who remarked in the same article how Bertie’s reluctance to become monarch after David’s abdication further deepened their brotherly tension.The author added: “Bertie knew it was by no means certain he would inherit the throne because of all this, which was ­humiliating in itself. The fact that he would now have to speak – and often – to the public and expose himself to their scrutiny lowered his self-esteem still further.”By now he hated his elder brother who had plunged him into ‘this ghastly void’, as he bitterly described it. Demands by the thick-skinned ex-king for a title for his new wife were rejected. Bertie had the whip hand. The worm had turned.”Within a year of David’s ­abdication, he was begging to be allowed to return home to England with his new bride. What he failed to realise was that he’d been exiled – and as far as the new King George VI was concerned, he was never coming back.”Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor is available here.