Prince William "loathed" being dressed in the same clothes as his younger brother Prince Harry during their childhood, according to Harry's 2023 memoir, Spare.
Long before their public rift, the brothers were frequently pictured together as children, often dressed alike by their late mother, Princess Diana. While the public found the matching outfits charming, Harry wrote that William was not a fan.
Harry's account of William's frustration
Harry wrote in his memoir: "Willy always hated it when anyone made the mistake of thinking us a package deal.
"He loathed it when Mummy dressed us in the same outfits. (It didn’t help that her taste in children's clothes ran to the extreme; we often looked like the twins from Alice in Wonderland.) I barely took notice.
"I didn't care about clothes, mine or anyone else's. So long as we weren't wearing kilts, with that worrisome knife in your sock and that breeze up your [expletive], I was good."
Harry noted that for William, who was older and wanted to carve out his own space, being forced to look like a pair of "twins" was frustrating.
Matching outfits and shared school
The princes famously wore matching denim-on-denim outfits during their royal visit to Canada on October 23, 1991. The brothers sported coordinated blue jeans and matching denim shirts after touring the Canadian frigate HMCS Ottawa in Toronto.
The issue did not end with childhood outfits. William and Harry eventually attended the same school, Eton College, although William had been there first.
Harry wrote: "For Willy, it was pure agony to wear the same blazer, the same tight shorts, as me. And now, to attend the same school was pure murder."
Harry came to Eton College just a year after his mother's death. William asked him to pretend they did not know each other, Harry claimed in the book.
He wrote: "Willy told me to pretend I didn’t know him. You don’t know me, Harold. And I don’t know you.
"For the last two years, he explained, Eton had been his sanctuary. No kid brother tagging along, pestering him with questions, pushing up on his social circle. He was forging his own life, and he wasn’t willing to give that up."
