Did Prince Harry Actually Want to Be King in Place of Prince William?

With the release of Prince Harry's new book Spare, and interview revelations that his relationship with Prince William was never as close as it may have appeared in public, Newsweek answers a reader's question as to whether Harry ever wanted to be king, looking at what the royal has said so far about his place in the line of succession.

Will Prince Harry Ever Inherit the Throne?

For Prince Harry to inherit the throne, he would have to move to first position in the line of succession. This line is the formal order in which members of the royal family will inherit the throne and is determined by blood proximity to the monarch.

When Harry was born, he was automatically placed third in the line of succession behind his father and older brother. The line constantly changes with births and deaths, so that by 2022 when his father became King Charles III, Harry was in fifth position, behind William and his three children.

As Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis grow up and have their own children, Harry's position in the line will move further away from the throne, making his chances of ever becoming king increasingly less likely.

Who Wants to Be King?

In an exclusive interview for Newsweek in 2017, Prince Harry opened up about his role in the royal family and how its members today were working to modernize what is essentially an ancient institution.

Speaking about the task of moving the monarchy forward, Harry revealed his view that no one within the royal family ever wants the top job of being king or queen.

"We are involved in modernizing the British monarchy. We are not doing this for ourselves but for the greater good of the people," he said.

"Is there any one of the royal family who wants to be king or queen? I don't think so, but we will carry out our duties at the right time."

Spare

In a few key passages within his memoir Spare, Prince Harry gives his thoughts on his position in the line of succession.

Writing that Prince Charles had apparently referred to him as the "spare" when he was born (in reference to the English saying "heir and a spare"), Harry said that he did not consider his place in the line of succession, instead believing it something as uncontrollable as the weather.

"Who had the time to worry about things so unchangeable?" he wrote. "Who could bother with being bothered by a fate etched in stone?

"Being a Windsor meant working out which truths were timeless, and then banishing them from your mind. It meant absorbing the basic parameters of one's identity, knowing by instinct who you were, which was forever a byproduct of who you weren't. I wasn't Granny. I wasn't Pa. I wasn't Willy. I was third in line behind them.

"Every boy and girl, at least once, imagines themselves as a prince or princess," Harry added. "Therefore, Spare or no Spare, it wasn't half bad to actually be one. More, standing resolutely behind the people you loved, wasn't that the definition of honor?"

In a separate section of the memoir, Harry recounts how he was asked his feelings on being moved down the line of succession after the births of his nephew Prince George, and niece Princess Charlotte.

"I was delighted for Willy and Kate, and I was indifferent to my place in the order of succession," he said of George's birth in 2013.

In 2015, when Charlotte was born, Harry wrote: "I was an uncle again, and very happy about it. But, predictably, during one interview that day or the next a journalist questioned me about it as though I'd received a terminal diagnosis...

"I thought: First of all, it's a good thing to be farther from the center of a volcano," he continued. "Second, what kind of monster would think of himself and his place in the line of succession at such a time, rather than welcoming a new life into the world?

"I'd once heard a courtier say that, when you were fifth or sixth in line you
were 'only a plane crash away.' I couldn't imagine living that way."

The Line of Succession

In the current line of succession, Prince Harry is in fifth position with his two children, Archie and Lilibet, in sixth and seventh. Meghan Markle is not in the line of succession because she is royal by marriage, not by blood, and therefore could never become queen in her own right.

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.