Prince William and Prince Harry got into trouble as teenagers because King Charles didn’t give them enough attention, according to a new royal book

• Katie Nicholl’s new book describes what King Charles was like as a parent when his children were teenagers.

• One of the King’s former aides-de-camp told Nicholl that he was not “present” with Harry and William.

• According to Nicholls book, William and Harry were often unable to reach their father.

According to a new book, Prince William and Prince Harry played together as teenagers because their father, King Charles III, didn’t pay them enough attention.

Royal reporter Katie Nicholl published The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown on October 4, detailing how Prince William and Prince Harry grew up through interviews with former palace staff.

According to the book, the princes were often left to their own devices when they were teenagers following Princess Diana’s death as King Charles was “busy”. Princess Diana died in 1997 when William was 15 and Harry was 12.

“With a busy work schedule and Camilla now a big priority in his private diary, Charles relied too much on William and Harry to take care of himself,” Nicholl wrote of the King’s approach to raising his teenage sons.

William and Harry attended Eton College, an elite boarding school, as teenagers, but they also spent time at their father’s home, Highgrove House, throughout their teenage years – and the king was often absent from them, as one of Charles’ former aides Nicholl said .

“The boys wanted their independence and they probably had too much of it,” the unnamed former aide told Nicholl. “Often when they wanted to speak to their father, he wasn’t there and because he didn’t have a cell phone with him, they were frustrated that they couldn’t reach him. If they needed him, they would. He ended up calling his protection officers so they could talk to him, which wasn’t ideal.”

“They wanted to speak to their father, but Charles doesn’t make spontaneous calls or text messages; he likes to take his time for thoughtful conversations,” the aide also said to Nicholl.

The story goes on

Nicholl also wrote in her book that Charles relied on close family friends to raise his sons, and William and Harry spent much of their time in the family homes of their nanny, Tiggey Legge-Bourke, and their friends, the Van Cutsems.

The surrogate families supported William and Harry, but the princes still ran into trouble if left unattended, as Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, Lady Elizabeth Anson, who died in November 2020, told Nicholl in a series of interviews before her death.

“On the weekends at Highgrove, the boys could end up loose because Charles wasn’t always around,” she told Nicholl.

For example, William and Harry started Club H in Highgrove where they threw parties for their friends and in 2001, when Harry was just 17 years old, he was drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes at an inn close to home, so Nichol.

“Those in the know turned a blind eye, but when an aide detected the distinctive smell of marijuana emanating from Club H, the young prince was arrested,” Nicholl wrote.

The aftermath of the incident led to Harry and William’s first rift as, according to Nicholl, only Harry got into trouble, despite William being with him at the time.

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