An archive video clip showing 3-year-old Prince William’s restless behavior during a 1985 photo shoot with his parents and younger brother, Prince Harry, has gone viral after fans uploaded it to TikTok.
The video shows a behind-the-scenes clip of the photo shoot, which was staged in conjunction with an interview with then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana at their London home.
The interview, where the couple spoke about their lives, was in support of the Prince’s Trust charity. It was a rare example of a joint sit-down with Charles and Diana four years after their fairy tale wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The princess had given birth to Harry the previous year and was praised for answering the questions of veteran broadcaster Alastair Burnet with clarity and charm.
After the interview, the cameras captured a staged version of family life at Kensington Palace, and the young princes, William and 1-year-old Harry, were brought into the drawing room to pose for photographs.
In the viral TikTik video, uploaded by user royalmashup and captioned “Prince William is clearly not in the mood for a photo shoot!,” William is taken into the room by Princess Diana’s lady-in-waiting, Anne Beckwith-Smith, and appears to be in a bad temperature.
The little prince hits out at his mother’s leg before being coaxed into holding Harry’s hand and then posing for the cameras in front of his father.
The video has been viewed over 120,000 times on TikTok and received over 3,500 likes and 100 comments, many of which commented on the young royal’s behavior.
“As a mom of four William looks exhausted he needed a nap,” wrote one user. Another adding: “William with hands on his hips.”
A number of commenters noted the similarities between the 1-year-old Harry and his own two children, Prince Archie, 4, and Princess Lilibet, 1, whom he is raising with Meghan Markle in California.
“Harry’s daughter, Lilibet, looks just like Harry as a baby,” wrote one viewer. “Both of Harry’s children look like him,” posted another.
Another theme noted by commenters is the relationship between William and Harry, which has been in focus in recent months with the release of Harry’s media projects including his bombshell Netflix docuseries with Meghan and his record-breaking memoir, Save.
One of the overarching themes of the book, and the interviews done by the prince in the US and UK promoting it, was the breakdown in his relationship with William and how long thedistance between the two has existed.
Harry recounts that when the two brothers were at school, William told him to pretend they didn’t know each other. Harry told Anderson Cooper: “At the time it hurt. I couldn’t make sense of it.”
Harry made a number of allegations against William in his book. The most serious was that William attacked him during a 2019 argument at Kensington Palace over Meghan Markle’s treatment of the royal staff.
“He grabbed me by the collar, ripped my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor,” Harry wrote. “I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”
Despite the friction between the brothers and the revelation that they were not speaking at the time of Save‘s release, Harry has maintained that he has a deep love for William. He told Cooper: “I look forward to having a relationship with my brother.”
For his part, William has not spoken publicly about Harry’s media projects or the allegations made in them.
The next time the brothers might be seen together in public is for the coronation of their father on May 6. Representatives for Harry and Meghan confirmed earlier this month that they had been contacted regarding the arrangements. Charles will be crowned king at London’s Westminster Abbey.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek’s royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
An archive video clip showing 3-year-old Prince William’s restless behavior during a 1985 photo shoot with his parents and younger brother, Prince Harry, has gone viral after fans uploaded it to TikTok.
