Royal commentators believe Prince George’s relationship with one of his siblings could become a great help when he is King
Prince George’s “greatest asset” when he becomes King could be much closer to home than anybody could imagine. According to Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent Katie Nicholl, George’s younger sister Princess Charlotte could work closely with older brother when he takes the throne. Nicholl says the two young royals have shown a “closeness” as they grow up in the spotlight.
Their relationship has been compared to that of their grandfather, King Charles, and his own sister, Princess Anne. The 74-year-old Princess Royal is often considered the “hardest working” member of The Firm, performing 217 royal engagements in 2024.
Prince George is said to be close to his sister (Image: Getty)
This included a number of visits and engagements while the King had to take time off last year following his cancer diagnosis. Nicholl believes the King and Princess Anne display a similar relationship to 11-year-old George and his sister.
Speaking on Channel 5’s Prince George: How to Make a Monarch, she said: “Charles and Anne were incredibly close and you do see a closeness between Charlotte and George. Rather than Charlotte being a threat to George, she will be possibly his greatest asset.”
According to psychotherapist Lucy Beresford, nine-year-old Charlotte won’t feel the same kind of “tension” she would have had if she were male. She explained: “If your eldest sibling is the same gender as you, how are you going to compete?
“That sense of the firstborn is going to get all of the love and I am going to get left with nothing. If you’re a different gender, somehow you haven’t got quite the same tension that you have with same-sex siblings.”
Prince Harry and Prince William have a more strained relationship than some royals (Image: Getty)
The children of a monarch are often referred to as “the heir and the spare” – something that inspired the title of Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare. Royal author Robert Lacey says it is a phenomenon that generations of royals are yet to adapt to.
Speaking to Vogue in 2022, he said: “The younger-sibling syndrome is an enduring problem. The system has not found a way of giving them the recognition that they need.”
In an interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, Harry said he believes his brother “plays into” the notion of the “heir and the spare”. While in his memoir, he described the Prince of Wales as a “beloved brother” and his “archnemesis”.
Speaking to Strahan, Harry said: “I think it really plays into, or was played by, the ‘heir/spare,’ and the British press’ part in that. They pitched the Waleses — of which Kate and William are now — against the Sussexes, me and my wife. They’ve always pitched us against each other. They pitched Kate and Meghan against each other.”
Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister, is said to have adopted a very different lifestyle as “the spare”. Margaret was said to enjoy a lavish lifestyle with her morning routine consisting of breakfast in bed, two hours of radio, and then a bath with a vodka cocktail.
According to Lady Anne Glenconner, one of Margaret’s ladies-in-waiting, she never “whinged” about being the “spare”. Speaking to People magazine, she said: “I knew Princess Margaret very, very well. And of course, she was a spare for quite a long time. But I mean, she was always completely loyal to the Queen. The only thing I ever heard her complain about was that she wished she’d been better educated.”
