From roller coaster rides and exclusive private schools, to second helpings of dessert, the
childhood of Prince William and Prince Harry was truly the stuff of envy despite the tragedy
they went through.
When imagining what and how the royal family eats dinner, it might be tempting to assume
that the family sits down at lavish state dinners each night, or at the very least,
that they have staff who bring their meals to their respective places at the table.
It turns out that when it comes to run-of-the-mill, everyday meals, the royal family often enjoyed
a buffet-style presentation.
While speaking on his YouTube channel, former royal chef Darren McGrady told viewers that
the royal family, and especially Prince William and Prince Harry, had the option to go back
for seconds or even thirds at mealtime.
McGrady explained,
"At Kensington Palace, the food was always served on the sideboard buffet-style, so the
boys could go back for more and more and more."
And, of course, the young boys definitely went back at least once to get seconds of
a specific part of the meal: sweets.
McGrady added,
"But it was always the desserts that they went back for!"
As kids, Harry and William shared the same favorite dessert: flan.
McGrady revealed on YouTube:
"Whenever the boys were home, Princess Diana would write banana flan in the menu book…
The boys would come back from school on a Friday to Kensington Palace and come in the
kitchen, 'What's for dinner, Darren?'
They'd see the banana flan on the side and say, 'Yes!'"
A lot of parents are pretty strict about what their kids do and do not eat, but it seems
Princess Diana was pretty flexible when it came to what her sons ate for their meals.
As shared by Insider, former royal chef Darren McGrady has explained that being royal didn't
mean that Prince William and Prince Harry expected fancy food each night ⁠— or that
they even wanted it.
He told the outlet,
"Princess Diana would say, 'If you want fried chicken or loaded potato skins or hamburgers,
that's fine."
But there was an adult in the lives of Prince William and Prince Harry who was pretty strict
about what they ate: their nanny.
McGrady went on to share to Insider,
"The nanny always insisted they had their protein, roast chicken, and cabbage because
cabbage was good for you."
Nevertheless, lean protein and cruciferous vegetables wouldn't have been the princes'
first choice.
McGrady told Express,
"If it was left to the boys, it would be cheeseburgers, pizza, chicken nuggets, and loaded jacket
potatoes."
While speaking to Insider, McGrady also revealed that he once received a note that was apparently
written by the nanny.
The note read:
"Please give the boys pizza tonight instead of chicken."
As McGrady revealed to Insider, however, the note was written in the handwriting of a young
child.
On to their trail, McGrady decided to serve the young princes chicken instead.
There are a number of accounts from history that detail the many ways in which Princess
Diana was a hands-on mother to her two sons.
"To myself and William she was just the best mother ever."
As noted by Us Weekly, it was important to the late Princess of Wales to give her sons
a semblance of a normal childhood whenever possible.
Us Weekly has also shared that in May 1985, Diana explained just how close she is to her
sons.
According to the outlet, Diana said,
"I hug my children to death and get into bed with them at night.
I always feed them love."
In a 1985 interview with Tim Graham, Princess Diana again reiterated her devotion to her
two children and to her husband and marriage.
She said that despite her royal duties and obligations, she always kept her family at
the forefront of her heart.
Diana explained,
"Most importantly, [my role is] being a mother and a wife.
That's what I try to achieve; whether I do is another thing, but I do try…
I live for my sons.
I would be lost without them."
Princess Diana also tried to make her children's childhood more normal by ensuring they were
introduced to childhood favorites like Happy Meals and theme parks.
Former royal chef Darren McGrady revealed in an interview with Marie Claire that he
received a phone call from Diana one afternoon letting him know that the meal plans for her
two sons had changed.
He explained,
"I remember the Princess came into the kitchen one day and said, 'Cancel lunch for the boys
I'm taking them out, we're going to McDonald's.
And I said, 'Oh my god your royal highness, I can do that, I can do burgers.'
And she said, 'No, it's the toy they want.'"
Diana also took her sons to British amusement park Thorpe Park over the Easter holidays
in 1991, 1992, and 1993.
As shared on Memories of Thorpe Park, Diana liked to ride every ride at the park except
for one called The Flying Fish.
The trio took a film crew on their visit in 1993, and the resulting film was made available
for purchase for a short time.
Prince William and Prince Harry enjoyed riding the Loggers Leap, the Teacup Ride, Thunder
River, Depth Charge, and the Hudson River Rafters with their mother.
Prince William and Prince Harry are brothers and by all accounts, they had a mostly great
relationship while they were growing up.
Unfortunately, like many first and second-born royal siblings before and likely after them,
they had to contend with a specific dynamic.
As the oldest child born to King Charles III and Princess Diana, Prince William is the
heir to the throne.
As the second-born child, Prince Harry became the "spare."
Author Christopher Andersen explains more about how this dynamic might have shaped the
relationship that William and Harry have to this day in his book Brothers and Wives: Inside
The Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan.
In an interview with Kinsey Schofield of the ‘To Di For’ podcast, Andersen admitted
that he didn't realize how potent the dynamic could be.
He explained:
"20 years ago when I wrote 'Diana's Boys,' I thought, this is this brotherly bond that
will never be broken because they've gone through things that nobody else in the world
has ever experienced, but clearly the heir and the spare dynamic is doomed to failure."
As the children of King Charles III and Princess Diana, it isn't surprising that Prince William
and Prince Harry attended some of the most elite schools in the United Kingdom.
While their grandmother Queen Elizabeth II was homeschooled by Marion Crawford, Prince
William and Prince Harry attended school outside of their home.
Prince William began his education at the Jane Mynors' nursery school in London, which
is now known as The Minors Nursery School, before moving on to Ludgrove School.
The British boarding school Ludgrove School is for boys ages 8-13 and was founded in 1892.
As noted by Hello!
Magazine, William did well and later attended both Eton College and the University of St.
Andrew's in Scotland before graduating in 2005.
Prince Harry attended Wetherby School for his earliest years and Ludgrove School, and
he also went on to Eton just like Prince William.
Although the brothers attended the school together for a time, Harry revealed in his
memoir, Spare, that William didn't want to associate with his little brother.
Harry wrote:
"During his first two years there, Eton had been a sanctuary.
That was without the burden of a little brother who would bother him with questions or stick
his nose in his social circle."
According to Harry, William asked his younger brother to pretend not to know him, to which
he agreed.
After Harry graduated from Eton, he did not attend university like his brother and instead
trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before spending 10 years enlisted in the military.
Lest one think that the lives of the young royals were spent indoors, think again.
In an April 2022 interview with actress Cate Blanchett for the Audible podcast Climate
of Change, Prince William shared that he and his brother Prince Harry were encouraged by
their father and grandfather to spend plenty of time outside when they were children.
William also said that it's been important to them both to share that appreciation of
the outdoors with their own children.
As William told Blanchett, he spent plenty of time climbing trees and getting dirty as
a kid:
"My grandfather, my father, both kind of having a deep passion and interest in this area for
many years, has sort of piqued my interest."
While Harry hasn't given interviews explicitly about spending his childhood outdoors, it's
safe to assume that he was right there with his older brother.
In October 2021, Harry sat down with environmentalist Jane Goodall and discussed his love for the
planet and the importance of conservation, something that his father has been very publicly
supportive of.
The world lost Princess Diana on August 31, 1997, and more importantly, Prince William
and Prince Harry lost their mother.
The two boys had to contend with the devastation they faced in two ways: in the public, outward-facing
role of royals, and behind the scenes at home, as two young children who were in mourning.
"It's like an earthquake, it just runs through the house.
And through your life and everything."
William and Harry have been open about the ways their mother's loss has impacted them
over the years.
In January 2018, William told volunteers at the Best Man Project that he and Harry became
closer after their mother died.
He explained,
"Losing our mother at a young age has kind of helped us sort of travel through that difficult
patch together.
When you're like-minded, you go through similar things.
It's a bond and it's something that, you know, you've tackled it together and come out the
other side better for it."
The brothers have also kept their mother's memory alive in several ways since 1997.
In July 2021, they unveiled a statue of their mother they had commissioned in honor of what
would have been her 60th birthday.
The brothers released a statement that explained,
"Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen
forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy."