Prince Harry is distancing himself more and more from his royal relatives from Great Britain and definitely doesn’t want to be like them. Nevertheless, the dropout Royal resembles his disgraced uncle Prince Andrew.
Did Prince Harry, 38, ever expect to find himself in the bottom third rather than the top third of the British royal family’s popularity ratings, putting him in the same league as Prince Andrew, 63? Probably not. In a poll recently commissioned by former Conservative Party Vice-Chairman Lord Ashcroft, 22 percent of the 11,450 respondents have a positive opinion of Harry, while just 7 percent still support Andrew. According to the survey, the two princes are among the top three most disliked members of the royal family (the Duchess of Sussex, 41, received 18 percent).
Prince Harry and Prince Andrew are ‘Mom’s favorites’
But it is not only in this sad development that Prince Harry and Prince Andrew are similar. Like the new book Windsor Spares: The Prince Harry And Prince Andrew’s Soap Opera! analyzed by Nigel Cawthorne, the two princes were “Mum’s favorites” from birth. We remember: Prince Harry emphasizes his connection to Princess Diana, † 36, in each of his interviews, and the deceased princess of hearts also plays a major role in his memoirs “Spare”. Whenever Prince William, 40, tried to restrain his younger brother, Harry said: “I can do what I want because I won’t be king. You can’t because you are.” There were no consequences. And Prince Andrew was always supported by Queen Elizabeth, † 99, throughout her life – despite his involvement in the Epstein scandal.
Military heroic stories and big dreams
Another thing they have in common: their affinity for the military. When Prince Harry was a little boy, he used to get his uncle to talk about his exploits as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands War – which Andrew was, of course, only too happy to do. No doubt these stories made a great impression on the young prince, who later had his own tales to tell of Afghan insurgents being shot dead from a helicopter.
Neither Harry nor Andrew excelled at school, but while Harry even managed to get two A-levels at Eton – a D in Geography and a B in Art – and excelled on the sports fields, Andrew was also in physical education not a big winner at Gordonstoun. But he didn’t mind – and that’s the big difference between the princes, as Nigel Cawthorne writes: Prince Andrew considers himself “the center of the universe”, nothing can upset his big ego, not even his unpopularity in society School. Classmates remember him as “showing off” and “conceited”. One says: “There was something ‘I am the Prince’ about him when he arrived… The taunts he received were relentless.”
And Harry? At Eton he was more rebellious as he always competed with his older brother. Today the dropout Royal says he felt like a “zero”, like a “untalented boy” who was only second-rate. Harry doubted, unlike Andrew. And that continued throughout his life. Teenage Prince Harry embraced his bad boy status. In the pubs around Highgrove he not only developed a taste for vodka but also started smoking marijuana. At Eton he soon became known as “Hash Harry”.
Prince Andrew was a little more careful about who he insulted. But staff and protection officers appeared to have been fair game. Diana’s former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, recalls once having to move from a window seat on an airplane because it “obstructed” Andrew’s view. “His manners are just terrible,” said Wharfe.
“The Playboy image is not one that deters Prince Andrew”
Still, there’s no denying that Prince Andrew and Prince Harry were heartthrobs in their late teens and 20s, Harry lost his virginity to an older woman behind a pub when he was 16. At the age of 21, Andrew was named one of the most eligible bachelors in the world by the US magazine “People”. His long list of girlfriends soon earned him another nickname: Randy Andy. “The playboy image is not one that deters Prince Andrew. He has often been spotted on party yachts and he feels this enhances his reputation. When he attracts voluptuous young ladies, he feels young,” wrote the author, among others Margaret Holder.
While Prince Harry tended to choose women who avoided the limelight, Andrew chose the exact opposite. Then, in 1981, he had his first real love affair. He met young American talent Koo Stark in a London nightclub. Koo had approached Andrew and his friends who were making noise on the dance floor and asked them to turn down the volume. “Stop being so boring,” said the prince. “We’re having a great time – come and join us.” The affair ended in 1983. Andrew’s subsequent marriage to Sarah Ferguson, 63, in 1986, was initially passionate but fell apart after six years.
Prince Harry also had many affairs, but unlike Andrew, he made an effort to keep them out of the headlines. He was also better at picking girlfriends who didn’t tell each other, and was in serious relationships with two of them. He finally married the American actress Meghan Markle, 41, with whom he now has two children and lives far away from royal madness in Montecito.
Sources used: “Windsor Spares: The Prince Harry And Prince Andrew’s Soap Opera!” by Nigel Cawthorne, dailmail.co.uk