Prince William and Harry Pretty Much Switched Personalities as They Got Older

Prince William used to be a loud troublemaker.

Before the prince grew up to the "responsible, serious" older brother, he was a bit of a hell-raiser. Already knowing he would be king, young William felt very highly of himself and reportedly often bullied his classmates, lashed out at his mother in public, and even once tried to give orders to soldiers in the Royal Highland Fusiliers Regiment and threatened to fire them if they didn't do as he said. One time, he was sent home from a birthday party after throwing an epic tantrum.

"Last fall he was brought home abruptly from a chum’s birthday party […] because he couldn’t blow out the candles on the cake," People wrote in 1988. "He demonstrated his displeasure by throwing sandwiches and ice cream around the room. He cleaned up the mess, sulkily, only under great nanny duress."

Reportedly, William's behavior was so bad, Princess Diana nicknamed him "Your Royal Naughtiness."

On the flipside, young Prince Harry was the complete opposite.

Before he'd be known for his "bad boy" ways, Prince Harry, during his younger days, was considered "the good one." Unlike his older brother, who was considered a brat, Harry was quieter, shier, and rarely acted out in public. "William’s very enthusiastic about things,” Princess Diana said back then. “He pushes himself right into it. Harry is quieter and just watches. No. 2 skates in quite nicely. But the bad luck about being No. 1 is trial and error, so we’re open-minded about William.”

As the oldest, William played the role of "protective older brother" to young, introverted Harry. The personality differences were so apparent, the British press couldn't help but poke fun at them. On the satirical British show Splitting Image, a comedy sketch depicted the two princes as rivals, with William attacking the mild-mannered Harry with a knife and a machine gun.

However, Princess Diana reportedly enjoyed the boys' differences in personality. "She doesn’t say to William, ‘You should be more quiet like your brother,’ or say to Harry, ‘Get on with it, like William,’" a palace observer told People in 1988. “She treats them as completely separate people.”

Tabloid scandals cause William to become more withdrawn.

Although initially bossy, loud, and controlling, a series of family scandals that played out in the media slowly made William more introverted, according to Penny Junor, author of Prince William: Born to be King. With Princess Diana and Prince Charles' marital issues being dissected by the British press, it wasn't easy for William to watch his private family issues be played out in the media. "It is little wonder that William grew increasingly insular, never quite certain who to trust, who might abandon him, who might betray what little privacy he had," the book described.

In one incident, 10-year-old William had to step up into a parenting role for his mother after she locked herself in the bathroom to cry. According to Diana, who revealed the story in a TV interview, young William shoved tissues under the door and told her, "I hate to see you sad." Because of the public scrutiny and the issues he was dealing with at home, this lead William to become withdrawn and private. “He became less outgoing, less trusting, less inclined to make himself vulnerable,” Penny said.

As Prince William becomes more introverted, Prince Harry steps up as the new bad boy.

With his older brother becoming less gregarious, Harry started coming out of his shell. Letters from Princess Diana revealed he was always getting in trouble at school and was quickly known by the public as the "fun-loving, irreverent" brother — a stark comparison to William, now in his teens, who was "shy, studious." Palace insiders at the time said, “[Harry] takes everything in stride with a smile, nothing fazes him.”

Because he was third in line (now fifth) for the throne and most likely won't ever be king, Harry was free of the daunting responsibilities that awaited his big brother. Because of that, Harry became more playful and laidback while his brother grew more serious and reserved. “I didn’t enjoy school at all," Harry revealed in 2015. "When I was at school I wanted to be the bad boy.”

As second in line, Prince William gets down to business.

As heir to the throne, William took his royal role seriously and, when he went off to college, focused more on his studies than being social. "[When he] arrived at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, [he] was cautious, insecure and a bit bereft," Penny's book described. "He hid under the bill of a baseball cap, was unduly quiet in lectures, often wrote his essays at the local police station, away from prying eyes, and steered clear of the American girls who threw themselves at his feet." It was there where William met Kate Middleton who, according to Penny, was the "least pushy girl he met in that first year."

Prince Harry's reckless behavior catches up with him.

The fun-loving prince had transformed right in front of the public's eyes. "The shy, almost tragic figure who shuffled behind his mother's coffin was transformed by the time he left the school into a confident hell-raiser," Sean Smith wrote in Kate. No longer in the shadow of his older brother, as a young adult, Harry found himself the focus of many tabloid scandals, from wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party, to getting into fights outside of nightclubs. Although he chilled out and matured as he got older, he definitely became his own person during this period, which, according to Princess Diana's astrologer, Debbie Frank, was his mother's wish. "On one of the last times we spoke over the phone, she said, 'I hope Harry will do things his own way and be able to be out of the shadow of William'."

Two brothers, two distinctive personalities.

Today, the two brothers are closer than ever despite their differences. "Only they had experienced the full nightmare of life within the Wales household,” Penny writes in her book. "Only they had known what it was like to be at an all-boys school when the newspapers were full of their parents' infidelities; only they had known what it was like to grieve for their mother while millions of strangers took ownership of her death."

Prince William, who was chosen to be his little brother's best man at his upcoming wedding to Meghan Markle, revealed in an interview that the brothers' close bond is impenetrable — regardless of how starkly different they are from each other. "Our relationship is closer than it’s been because of the situation we’ve been through," he told UK radio host Roman Kemp. "Losing our mother at a young age, it’s helped us travel through that difficult patch together. You’re like-minded. You go through similar things — it’s a bond, and it’s something you know you’ve tackled together and come out better for it."