Prince Harry felt like ‘a spare wheel’ during outings with William and Kate

The media and royal fans alike lapped up these happy photos – but the truth about how Prince Harry really felt has now been revealed.

They delivered the picture-perfect vision of sibling unity – but the reality of Prince Harry’s single days hanging out with Prince William and Kate Middleton at official royal engagements was reportedly quite different.

Harry felt like a third wheel – and even like “a gooseberry” – when he carried out official engagements alongside his brother and sister-in-law, according to one royal expert.

“Harry felt very much like a spare wheel,” Katie Nicholl told Entertainment Tonight, citing excerpts she has read from the upcoming tell-all biography, Finding Freedom: Harry And Meghan And The Making Of A Modern Royal Family.

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Harry, Kate and William in 2014. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

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The book says Harry was unhappy for some time, Nicholl said.

“One of the themes that seems to be recurrent in Finding Freedom is that Harry felt very much like a spare wheel,” Nicholl told ET.

“While the media loved this idea of a royal threesome, 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.”

Meghan Markle changed all that, Nicholl said, again citing the biography.

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Once Meghan was on the scene, Harry finally had his own partner. Picture: Tolga Akmen/AFP

“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.

“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 cosy and convenient, but actually wasn’t really what he wanted.”

While Meghan has been widely blamed as the catalyst for the couple stepping down from their role as royals and decamping to Los Angeles, “Harry was very much the driving force” behind “Megxit,” she said.

“She gave him new confidence, but I think the truth is that, for a long while, Prince Harry has wanted out.”

This article originally appeared in the NY Post and was reproduced with permission