Princess Diana thought Prince Harry would make a better king than his older brother William, a royal watcher has claimed.
Since birth, the two brothers have had their respective lives and roles mapped out, as royal protocol and tradition dictates - William the heir and Harry the 'spare'.
Yet their mother Princess Diana was apparently so convinced Harry would would make a better monarch, she even had a secret nickname for him.
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The Mirror reports that the tragic late princess never revealed the reasons why she felt her younger son was more suitable for the role.
But it was claimed that when William confided in her that "he didn’t want to be king”, a young Harry is said to have declared: "If you don’t want the job I’ll have it."
According to royal expert Robert Jobson, this led to Diana privately calling Harry GKH - or Good King Harry.
He told the Channel 5 programme William & Harry: Princes At War?: “She used to refer to Harry as GKH (Good King Harry) because she thought he’d probably be better equipped for the role in the future than William.”
Meanwhile, TV broadcaster Jeremy Paxman also said Diana talked about her sons' futures during a lunch meeting.
He explained: "We talked about our children and she said William often told her that he didn’t really want to be king, and then Harry would say, ‘If you don’t want the job I’ll have it'."
In 1995, during her famous Panorama interview with Martin Bashir, the princess was asked if the title of King should go directly to William, who was then aged 13.
She said: 'Well, then you have to see that William’s very young at the moment, so do you want a burden like that to be put on his shoulders at such an age? So I can’t answer that question.”
However, with William now just months away from his 40th birthday, one royal expert has said she believes he is now matured into his future royal role.
Speaking to OK! former royal correspondent Jennie Bond said: "She [Diana] said that he found at that age, in his early teens, the burden of kingship was already weighing quite heavily on his shoulders.
"I think we did see a reluctance to take on the role earlier on, in his early adolescence, he knew his destiny as none of the rest of us do from such an early age."
"But in the last couple of years, he has shown convincingly that he is the man for the role and that he cares about being king.
"He absolutely fully accepts the role and the responsibility destiny has put his way."
