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Royal experts claim Prince William 'didn't want to be king' but Prince Harry did

Prince William has always known since he was a child that he will eventually go on to be King, but it seems as though he hasn't always wanted it and his mother Princess Diana didn't necessarily think it was the right role for him.

Royal expert Robert Jobson has claimed on the Channel 5 programme William & Harry: Princes At War? that as a child William told his mother he "didn't want to be king" with his brother Prince Harry declaring in response: "If you don’t want the job I’ll have it."

Princess Diana, Prince Harry, Prince William and Prince Charles
Royal experts have claimed Princess Diana once shared that Prince William 'didn't want to be king', and Prince Harry was always keen to take the job instead. Photo: Getty

This then led to Diana calling Harry GKH, which stood for Good King Harry.

Jobson added, "She used to refer to Harry as GKH (Good King Harry) because she thought he’d probably be better equipped for the role in the future than William."

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TV host Jeremy Paxton has also backed up the claims that William wasn't initially so keen on the gig, saying Diana once confided this to him.

He said: "We talked about our children and she said William often told her that he didn’t really want to be king, and then Harry would say, ‘If you don’t want the job I’ll have it'."

During Diana's famous Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995, she was asked if she thought the role of King should go directly to William, who was 13 at the time.

Prince William and Prince Harry at Diana statue unveiling
While Harry is no longer a senior royal, there was once a time when he wished he could be King. Photo: Getty

She responded: "Well, then you have to see that William’s very young at the moment, so do you want a burden like that to be put on his shoulders at such an age?

"So I can’t answer that question."

However, now that William is closing in on 40 years old, former royal correspondent Jennie Bond has revealed he is ready for the role.

"She [Diana] said that he found at that age, in his early teens, the burden of kingship was already weighing quite heavily on his shoulders," Bond told OK!. "I think we did see a reluctance to take on the role earlier on, in his early adolescence, he knew his destiny as none of the rest of us do from such an early age."

She added, "But in the last couple of years, he has shown convincingly that he is the man for the role and that he cares about being king.

"He absolutely fully accepts the role and the responsibility destiny has put his way."

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