Prince Harry's 'Work-Shy' Prince William Commentary Goes Viral

Prince Harry's recent discussion of his brother, Prince William's, "work-shy" label, given to him by the British press, has been widely shared online, becoming the focus of a new viral video on social media platform TikTok.

Harry described the label given to William in 2015 as "obscene" and "grossly unfair," at a time the prince was still working as an air ambulance helicopter pilot, as well as raising a young family.

Harry's memoir titled, Spare, was published in January and became the fastest selling non-fiction book of all time, though the royal faced criticism for his unflattering appraisals of his family members, including William, Kate Middleton, King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Alongside the release of Spare's print edition, Harry also recorded a 15-hour audiobook version, many clips of which were picked out by fans and edited into social media videos that became widely circulated online.

Uploaded to TikTok by user theroyalfaamily, the new viral clip, which has been viewed over half a million times, shows Harry describing the events of early 2015 and the issues of inter-royal-household relations which impacted how much work William, and by extend Harry too, could do.

"The papers were awash with stories about Willy [William] being lazy, and the press had taken to calling him 'Work-shy Wills,' which was obscene, grossly unfair, because he was busy having children and raising a family," Harry narrates in the video.

The royal notes that at the time, the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were not only raising their son, Prince George, who had been born two years earlier, but were also expecting their second child, Princess Charlotte who was born in May 2015.

"Also, he was still beholden to Pa, who controlled the purse strings," he continued of his father, King Charles III (who was at the time Prince of Wales).

"He did as much as Pa wanted him to do, and sometimes that wasn't much, because Pa and Camilla didn't want Willy and Kate getting loads of publicity. Pa and Camilla didn't like Willy and Kate drawing attention away from them or their causes. They'd openly scolded Willy about it many times."

The example provided of this was an incident where Kate was scheduled to undertake an engagement at a tennis club on the same day that Charles and Camilla were due to appear elsewhere in the country at an official event.

"Told that it was too late to cancel the visit, Pa's press officer warned: 'Just make sure the Duchess doesn't hold a tennis racquet in any of the photos!'"

The prince then observed: "Such a winning, fetching photo would undoubtedly wipe Pa and Camilla off the front pages. And that, in the end, couldn't be tolerated."

Criticism of William for his workload during this period persisted and in 2016, in an interview given to the BBC ahead of Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday, he addressed this.

"There is an impression in some quarters that you are in some ways a slightly reluctant royal," royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell commented.

"You will have seen—or I'm sure people will have told you about—some of the stories, some of the headlines, in recent weeks and months, 'Work-shy William' I think some of them have said. There's also been criticism of the duchess in a similar vein. How do you respond to that. Do you regard that criticism, that impression, as being a fair one?"

"To be honest, I'm going to get plenty of criticism over my lifetime and it's something that I don't completely ignore but it's not something I take completely to heart," the prince responded.

"I'm concentrating very much on my role as a father, I mean I'm a new father, and I take by duties and my responsibilities to my family very seriously and I want to bring my children up as good people and with the idea of duty and service to others as very important. But, if I can't give my time to my children as well I worry about their future."

The prince then continued to add that his grandmother, the queen, was the person who decided which duties he took on and that these were increasing as she approached her tenth decade.

Since stepping away from the monarchy with Meghan Markle in 2020, Prince Harry has made efforts to present his side of the established narratives of life behind the palace walls perpetuated by the tabloid media in Britain.

Through his Netflix docuseries, memoir and multiple interviews promoting it, the prince not only discussed his desire to present his version of events, but also revealed the complicated web of relationships between the press and palace that oftentimes prevented him from doing so.

Buckingham Palace for King Charles and Kensington Palace for Prince William have not made any comment on Harry's recent media projects or the his claims about his family.

The royals are set to be reunited at the king's coronation which is taking place in London on May 6.

A statement released earlier this month confirmed Harry's attendance but also that Meghan would not be accompanying him. It read: "Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that The Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on 6th May. The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet."

Newsweek approached Buckingham Palace via email for comment.

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.

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