Prince Harry has candidly shared details about the difficulties he experienced during his school years, especially while attending Eton College.
In a 2023 interview with journalist Anderson Cooper, the Duke of Sussex opened up about the emotional and social challenges he encountered at the prestigious boarding school and how his bond with his older brother, Prince William, sometimes made things more complicated.
Harry, who studied at Eton from 1998 to 2003, recounted an early memory that left him feeling wounded.
According to Hello! magazine, he told Cooper that when he first arrived at Eton, William had asked him to act as though they didn’t know each other.
“At the time, it hurt. I couldn’t make sense of it,” Harry recalled.
“I was like, ‘What do you mean? We’re now at the same school.’”
Although he now sees it as typical older sibling behavior—a desire to carve out independence—Harry admitted that, in the moment, it felt like a personal rejection.
In his memoir Spare, Harry delved deeper into his Eton experience, describing his struggles to fit in among the various student cliques.
He explained that the school was socially divided: students who played dry-land sports such as rugby and football were known as “dry bobs,” while those involved in water-based sports like rowing and swimming were labeled “wet bobs.”
“I was a dry, who occasionally got wet,” he wrote, noting that although he participated in many sports, rugby was the one he truly loved.
While athletics gave him a degree of social inclusion, it didn’t resolve the more profound feeling of not belonging.
He confessed that rugby became a coping mechanism, stating, “I simply didn’t feel pain the way other boys did, which made me scary on a pitch.”
This physical toughness allowed him to channel his emotions into the sport, even if it didn’t erase his internal struggles.
In contrast, Prince William reportedly thrived at Eton.
Town & Country magazine notes that William was the first senior royal to attend the Berkshire school, marking a departure from the traditional royal path—previous generations like King Charles and Prince Philip were educated at Gordonstoun in Scotland.
In 2023, William and Princess Catherine were spotted touring Eton, prompting speculation that they might be considering enrolling their eldest son, Prince George, there in the future.
Eton College has long been intertwined with Britain’s royal and aristocratic circles. Notable alumni include Princess Diana’s father and brother—John and Charles Spencer—as well as Queen Elizabeth’s cousins: Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent; and Prince Michael of Kent.
Despite the hurdles he faced at Eton, Harry has expressed appreciation for his time at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he trained in 2006.
In the Harry & Meghan Netflix documentary, he reflected positively on that chapter of his life, saying he felt “grateful” to be surrounded by “normal people” and valued the sense of purpose and camaraderie it provided.
