How Queen Elizabeth's relationship with 'spare' Princess Margaret differed to Princes William and Harry's... as rift between the royal brothers continues into the New Year
The late Queen Elizabeth and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, have much in common with Princes William and Harry.
Each pair was an heir to the throne and a 'spare', though in some ways, their experience of this was very different.
Growing up, Elizabeth and Margaret relied on one another as friends, school companions and siblings - which forged a close bond that lasted into adulthood.
William and Harry instead had a more complicated relationship, seemingly with greater tension between the two at times, especially during their teenage years.
Here, MailOnline takes a look at the dynamics between the 'heirs' and their 'spares'.
As young children, Elizabeth and William had similar reactions to their new siblings being born.
Andrew Morton wrote how the future Queen was besotted with Margaret as a baby, in his book, Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters.
He revealed how Elizabeth touched Margaret's hand and was overjoyed.
Princes Harry and William during the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales in 2021
Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret pictured together in 1946
She told the doctor, 'Come and see my baby, my very own baby'.
The young princess even arranged her toys later on, already preparing to play with the infant.
Like his grandmother, William was also enamoured with the arrival of his younger brother.
In a letter sent from Princess Diana to her parents' housekeeper, Violet Collison, the late Princess of Wales detailed the sweet relationship.
She noted how 'William adores his little brother and spends the entire time pouring an endless supply of hugs and kisses over Harry'.
Diana joked that the display was 'wonderful to watch, if we're allowed near!' demonstrating the inseparable bond between the two young royals. However, during their childhood, differences between the two boys began to show.
Former editor of Tatler and The New Yorker, Tina Brown, described in The Palace Papers how from a young age, their personalities began to reflect their future roles.
She wrote: 'Around the ages of four and six, the two brothers seemed to absorb their appointed destinies.
The princesses preparing for a radio address in the early 1940s, wearing matching outfits and hairstyles
William and Harry, in matching striped shorts and red shirts, with Diana, in Aberdeen in 1989
'Duty and responsibility were drilled into the heir to the throne - subduing his boisterousness - while Harry became the skinny, exuberant imp of misrule.'
In a similar sense, Elizabeth was also described as acting like a monarch as a child.
The princesses' nanny, according to Mr Morton, wrote in her diary how Elizabeth had a 'temper' but kept it 'under control', while her younger sister 'was often naughty; but had a cheerful and charming persona.
Harry admitted in his memoir, Spare, that he didn't know his Aunt Margaret well and described her as 'almost a total stranger'.
Despite this, he expressed how he felt they had 'so much in common'.
'Two Spares,' Harry wrote. 'Her relationship with Granny wasn't an exact analogue of mine with Willy, but pretty close. The simmering rivalry, the intense competition, largely by the older siblings, it all looked familiar.'
However, it could also be said they had a somewhat different experience as children.
Harry shared in Spare how William was given a bigger and more 'luxurious' portion of their bedroom at Balmoral, while he had a smaller one.
Even as a child, he put it down as, 'Willy was the heir whereas I was the spare'.
Though they were terms often used by the media, Harry revealed how his family used them as 'shorthand' when referring to him and William.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana with their children at home in Kensington Palace in December 1986
Margaret and Elizabeth, in matching dresses, playing a piano in Buckingham Palace
He wrote: 'I was twenty the first time I heard the story of what Pa allegedly said to Mummy the day of my birth: Wonderful, now you've given me an Heir and a Spare - my work is done.'
For Elizabeth and Margaret however, the dynamic seemed different in some ways.
According to Mr Morton, Margaret once said, 'I have never suffered from "second-daughter-itits". But I did mind forever being cast as the "younger sister".'
Margaret viewed herself as being King George's daughter, instead of being known as the Queen's sister.
Though Elizabeth had some privileges over Margaret including going horse riding alone with their father and having a bedtime 30 minutes later, Mr Morton wrote.
And the young royals were aware of their differences.
Mr Morton told how Elizabeth once informed Margaret: 'I'm three and you're four.'
To which the younger sister replied: 'No, you're not. I'm three, you're seven'.
However, the princess was talking about their places in the line of succession, not their ages.
The two brothers attending Pippa Middleton's wedding to James Matthews in 2017
Elizabeth and Margaret smiling on the Royal Train during the royal tour of South Africa in 1947
All four of the royals shared the experience of being dressed in matching outfits.
Diana had a habit of dressing her two sons in similar clothes, which was reportedly infuriating to William.
Harry wrote in Spare how his older brother 'loathed it when Mummy dressed us in the same outfits'.
Similarly, Mr Morton shared how Elizabeth and Margaret 'were treated more like twins who dressed exactly the same'.
Their close sisterly relationship continued into adulthood, even after a huge change in roles when Elizabeth was crowned at just 27 years old.
Ms Brown wrote: 'Even after the Queen was increasingly - and, for Margaret, painfully - captured by her duties as monarch, the sisters still spoke on the phone every day.'
The royal author said: 'Margaret was the only person on the planet who always knew Elizabeth as a peer, exchanging gossip, complaining about their mother, understanding the world through the same peculiar royal prism.'
For William and Harry however, the situation seems very different.
Though they were once close and even worked together to campaign for mental health initiatives including Heads Together, they reportedly no longer spoke.
The Queen and Margaret attending a charity concert at St James's Palace in 1984
William and Harry after attending the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service at St Paul's Cathedral in 2017
There had been reports of tension between the brothers for several years over various issues.
Harry eventually stepped down as a working royal with his wife in 2021 and later, in 2023, published Spare - detailing his own account of growing up and his experience of royal life.
Harry made a series of damaging claims about his brother in his memoir - including going into detail about one alleged incident where William 'knocked him into a dog bowl that cracked and cut his back' within the Kensington Palace estate.
What's more, the Duke of Sussex also claimed that the Prince and Princess of Wales 'told him to wear' the infamous Nazi fancy dress costume and 'howled with laughter' when they saw him in it.
