Like Father, Like Son: King Charles Despised Princess Diana Upstaging Him as Prince Harry Gets 'Overshadowed' by Meghan Markle
King Charles III frequently experienced bouts of jealousy when Diana, Princess of Wales, upstaged him on royal tours, and their youngest son Prince Harry reportedly feels the same about Meghan Markle.
"Harry finds himself in the same position — always rather diffident, Harry is permanently in his wife’s shadow," royal author Tom Quinn told an outlet.
"In Nigeria, where she was able to talk about her Nigerian heritage, Meghan was always the center of attention," he added. "Harry doesn’t mind for now, but at the back of his mind there will always be the thought that once again he is always a side dish and never the main course."
When making the comparison to the then-Prince and Princess of Wales, Quinn stated: "It’s ironic that one of the most poisonous issues between Harry‘s mother and father was that wherever they went in the world, Diana stole the limelight and Charles, as the future king, hated it."
A palace insider also stepped forward to share their thoughts on Harry and Meghan's "tour," by highlighting how the Duke of Sussex, "seemed and looked characteristically constipated, and unable to turn on the charisma his mother, and to a faker degree, his wife, were and are able to do."
When the then-Prince Charles married the 20-year-old Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in the summer of 1981, "it was as if the world instantly had a brand new Marilyn Monroe figure," a second royal source employed in the royal household in the 1980s shared. "Madonna came along a few years later and captivated the world, but even she was never as beloved and revered as Diana."
They added: "Everywhere she and the Prince of Wales went, they were flooded with seas of people screaming how beautiful and perfect she was, while the prince simply smiled with a sort of stern grin underneath it."
The late Princess of Wales revealed her husband's jealousy over her when she sat down with Martin Bashir of the BBC's Panorama in November 1995.
"The pressure on us both as a couple with the media was phenomenal, and misunderstood by a great many people," the one-time future queen spilled. "We'd be going round Australia, for instance, and all you could hear was, 'Oh, she's on the other side.' Now, if you're a man like my husband, a proud man, you mind about that if you hear it every day for four weeks. And you feel low about it, instead of feeling happy and sharing it."
The "iconic" royal continued: "A great deal of complicated situations arose because of that."
Although it is believed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a "loving" marriage, other royal analysts feel that "history could be repeating itself."
Daily Mirror reported on Quinn's remarks.