They say history repeats itself—which is why Prince Harry says he’s pretty much constantly worried about Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s kids. Or, for two of them anyway.
Although he didn’t specify which of his brother’s kids he frets over, it’s pretty safe to assume that honor goes to Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, who were born into a very small club of which Harry is also a member: The Younger Siblings of Future Literal Kings club (their older brother, Prince George, is currently second in line to the throne). And, according to Harry, it’s not a fun club to be part of—at all.
Being the “spare,” (aka the child born after the heir to the throne) had such a huge impact on Harry that he literally made it the name of his memoir. And, since he’s currently in the midst of an explosive press tour to promote said memoir, it’s not exactly a surprise that he shared his thoughts about the next generation of Windsor “spares.”
“As I know full well—within my family—if it’s not us [me and my brother] it’s going to be someone else,” he explained during an interview with The Telegraph. “And though William and I have talked about it once or twice, and he has made it very clear to me that his kids are not my responsibility, I still feel a responsibility knowing that out of those three children, at least one will end up like me, the spare. And that hurts, that worries me.”
In Spare, Harry writes that it wasn’t just the press that referred to him as the spare—family members including his father, King Charles, mother, Princess Diana, grandfather, Prince Philip, and grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, all used the label as a kind of nickname for him growing up.
“I was summoned to provide backup, distraction, diversion and, if necessary, a spare part,” he writes (per Us Weekly). “Kidney, perhaps. Blood transfusion. Speck of bone marrow. This was all made explicitly clear to me from the start of life’s journey and regularly reinforced after.”
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