Prince Harry and Kate Middleton used to be very close. In fact, the Duke of Sussex once called the Duchess of Cambridge as the older sister that he never had.

However, their relationship reportedly changed shortly after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle started dating. But according to Us Weekly, this isn’t entirely the case.

Even before Prince Harry and Markle started dating, the former was already feeling like the third wheel to Prince William and Middleton.

Growing, the Duke of Sussex also felt that he was a spare, while Prince William was the heir. And this feeling never left him and it only became worse because of the Cambridges.

During their joint royal appearances before Markle, Prince Harry also reportedly felt like a third wheel and a spare part to the Cambridges.

“There were blatant jealousy issues and a huge power struggle from Harry’s side,” the source said.

Things became much worse for Prince Harry after the Cambridges announced their engagement in 2010.

“For years, Harry accused the monarchs of giving William preferential treatment. He’d talk about how miserable he was, living in his brother’s shadow,” the source said.

Following the engagement, Prince Harry’s insecurities were allegedly reinforced. After all, the eyes of the royal fans were all glued to the future king and queen of England.

Prince Harry also felt sidelined by Middleton because Queen Elizabeth started focusing and training her for her future role.

“The queen and her aides put a huge amount of their time and energy into preparing Kate for her future role. Harry felt totally sidelined. And not only by William – he had to contend with Kate too. It was a double whammy. With Kate becoming a prominent figure in the royal family and successfully working her way up the royal ladder, Harry was overwhelmed with anger and resentment, like it was two against one,” the source said.

Additionally, a lot of the projects that Prince Harry wanted to take on were given to Prince William and Middleton. And this allegedly made him feel that he wasn’t good enough.

When the time came that Prince Harry could no longer contain his feelings of resentment, he allegedly spoke with Middleton.

“He never pointed the finger at her, and she made an effort to include him. They got along but seeing Kate and William so happy rubbed salt into Harry’s wounds. He felt lonelier than ever,” the source said.