Prince Harry slammed for dragging Queen's sister Princess Margaret into his war with William

Prince Harry has been flayed by royal critics for comparing his and Prince William's "sibling rivalry" to the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Princess Margaret.

Prince Harry also irked royal fans as he compared tension between him and his brother Prince William to the relationship between his grandmother and great-aunt.

The Duke of Sussex, in his memoir Spare, writes: "Now and then, as I grew older, it struck me that Aunt Margo and I should’ve been friends. We had so much in common. Two Spares."

Meghan's husband adds: "Her relationship with Granny wasn’t an exact analogue of mine with Willy, but pretty close. The simmering rivalry, the intense competition (driven largely by the older sibling), it all looked familiar."

Royal expert Gareth Russell discussed it with royal commentator Kinsey Schofield on an episode of the To Di For Daily podcast last month.

Ms Schofield said: “He gets into the competition aspect of Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth, although I don’t know if they’re even remotely comparable considering how angry Prince Harry sounds.”

Russell added: “I don’t know if I believe that. I don’t believe that Margaret and Elizabeth had as much of a sense of competition — or the heir and the spare syndrome — as many people make out to be.

“The Crown has made a major plotline out of that and it’s a drama, it has the right to do that, and Margaret’s been played by three absolutely phenomenal actresses over the course of the five seasons and counting. But I really think it has embedded this idea that Margaret was the sacrificial spare and I don’t think Margaret would have seen herself like that.”

King Charles III's younger son Harry has frequently touched on the disparities in how he and his brother William were treated from a young age, even indicating that the decoration of their childhood bedroom at Balmoral Castle pointed at their places in the royal pecking order.