Harry felt like the spare wheel in 'royal threesome' alongside William and Kate, wanted out after meeting Meghan
A royal expert recently said that Prince Harry often felt like a third wheel and a "gooseberry" when he used to carry out official engagements alongside brother Prince William and Kate Middleton, before announcing that he wanted to quit the monarchy as a 'senior member' of the royal family back in January.
Royal correspondent Katie Nicholl, referring to the upcoming tell-all biography, 'Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family' told Entertainment Tonight: “Harry felt very much like a spare wheel." She added that the Duke of Sussex had been unhappy for a very long time as he did his duties as the sixth heir to the British throne.
“One of the themes that seems to be recurrent in ‘Finding Freedom’ is that Harry felt very much like a spare wheel,” Nicholl told the outlet. “While the media loved this idea of a royal threesome (Kate Middleton, Prince William and Prince Harry), for Harry, he very much felt like a spare wheel. At points, I even heard him complaining that he felt like the gooseberry, the third one along at the date. He never quite fitted in.”
However, it was not for the lack of trying on his brother and sister-in-law's part to make him feel comfortable. “I think that while Kate and William went out of their way to make sure Harry felt like a part of this team, this trio, Harry always wanted to be his own person,” she told the outlet.
The entrance of Meghan Markle in the scenario considerably changed the dimensions as Harry found a partner who could support him and with whom he could make public appearances. “I think Meghan has very much been the catalyst in giving him that confidence to break free from William and Kate, and to break free from that trio dynamic, which was at times cozy and convenient, but actually wasn’t really what he wanted,'' Nicholl said.
Then came the infamous Megxit, which saw one of the most popular princes of Britain move overseas with his wife and child to the United States - a historic move that has been unprecedented in the royal family in the past. And the entire blame of the move fell on the former 'Suits' star as the British media relentlessly started attacking her for having a bad influence on Harry. Nicholl begged to differ from the notion popularized by the media.
“Harry was very much the driving force” behind “Megxit,” Nicholl added. “She gave him new confidence, but I think the truth is that, for a long while, Prince Harry has wanted out.”
We previously reported that friends of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have snapped at claims made in the bombshell new biography of Harry and Meghan being shunned by the royal family. Although the authors of 'Finding Freedom' Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand have claimed that the Sussexes were never welcomed by Harry's brother and his wife, close friends of William and Kate said in the couple's defense that they have "done all they possibly could" to "roll out the red carpet" in order to welcome the ex-Hollywood actress into the family, going as far as inviting Meghan to Anmer Hall, their family home in Norfolk, and Kate personally cooking vegan meals for her brother-in-law's then-fiancee.