Growing up, Prince William and Prince Harry were not your typical royal children.
In fact, many aspects of their upbringing differentiated them from princes and princesses of previous generations.
That said, though, William and Harry did get a privileged royal education.
Indeed, when William was 8 years old, he headed off to Ludgrove School to study.
Years later, when Harry turned that same age, he joined William there.
“William’s childhood would have been very much as an 18th-century aristocrat’s childhood would have been.
Governesses, nannies, the absolute best of everything.
But also, added to that, he would have been cosseted.”
There, the young prince had to share a bedroom with four other boys.
According to the prince, this dynamic was particularly stressful because his classmates learned about his private life.
As a result, the boys' classmates probably had unusual insight into their parents' marital issues.
However, the details of the private conversations between mother and son made their way into the tabloids.
He also reportedly asked teachers to hide their own personal papers from the kids.
William is believed to have felt particularly grateful for these anti-tabloid school rules.
It took them out of troubled waters."
Thus, in a way, it is unsurprising that Ludgrove came through for the boys.
… [T]hey certainly weren’t the only children to come from dysfunctional homes."
But he was only 10 when his parents officially separated in 1992."
Despite these tensions, William enjoyed his time at Ludgrove and was even a successful student.
The matrons came down the row of tubs with stiff brushes, bars of floral soap."
Harry shared, “Mine was 116.”
We can see this dynamic in one of Diana’s private letters, which theDaily Maillater obtained.
Interestingly, it seems that Diana may have been right to worry.
Some sources indicate that Harry did not always take his education at Ludgrove seriously.
Some even said that at times, he cracked jokes during class.
His own schoolwork was below average and he compensated by being the class joker."
As the royal insider told Jobson, “[H]e certainly wasn’t stupid.
There were too many distractions for him.
He was always getting told off.
If there was fun to be had, he would do that rather than work.”
During Prince William’s time at prep school, the young royal occasionally experienced a bit of anxiety.
These days, William no longer has to feel anxious about going back to boarding school.
While studying at Ludgrove School, both princes made plenty of friends and Harry even found a best friend.
Whereas Harry was often stressed about his royal future, Henners lived in the moment.
In"Spare,“Harry wrote, “The future.
We wondered aloud what it held.
I worried about it, but not Henners.
He didn’t take the future seriously, didn’t take anything seriously.”
In that sense, Henners probably provided a sense of peace to Harry’s otherwise chaotic childhood.
At one point, though, the prince admitted, “I envied his tranquillity.”
Unfortunately, however, Henners passed away just a few years after Harry left Ludgrove.
In 2002, the boy died in a car crash.
This was especially evident afterPrincess Diana’s tragic fatal car accident in 1997.
Apparently, the older prince wanted to protect his more vulnerable little brother.
“I don’t want to go away from him now,” William said.
“He needs me.”
Years later, when Harry joined his brother at Eton, William did not want him tagging along.
In “Spare,” Harry wrote that William ignored him.
They need to see that life goes on.”
Unfortunately, for Prince Harry, things were not that simple.
