Prince Harry given savage nickname by former servants – who joked it would ‘take him two weeks to put his trousers on’ without them, new royal book claims

Prince Harry’s former servant has dubbed him ‘probably the most muddled of all the royals of his generation’ – and said those working for him would compare him to a famous Blackadder character.

Speaking anonymously to Yes, Ma’am – The Secret Life of Royal Servants by Tom Quinn, a new book which will be out this month, one insider opened up about what it was like to cater to the Duke of Sussex.

‘I remember once in his private apartments I’d muddled something – some of his papers on his desk or something,’ they revealed, in an extract obtained by FEMAIL.

‘He was immediately angry and it was out of proportion to the problem, or at least I thought it was.’

The source added that other staff had ‘experienced similar incidents’ – and even used to quip about the royal’s temperament.

‘We thought it was a bit rich complaining about me being muddled given that Harry was probably the most muddled of all the royals of his generation,’ they continued.

‘The joke used to be that Harry was very much like the Prince Regent in the Blackadder television series.

‘People used to say that without a servant, Harry would take two weeks to put his own trousers on.’

The character in the famous British comedy, played by Hugh Laurie, was notoriously hapless and out of touch.

In one episode, it takes him a whole week just to put on a pair of trousers by himself, and even then he ends up with them on his head.

Despite that, the book also says ‘several of Harry’s former staff insist that his vulnerability gave him sensitivity and charm’ – but, ‘like his brother William and his father Charles, he was prone to flashes of irritation’.

FEMAIL has reached out to the Sussexes for comment. 

In another part of the book, it was claimed that Harry’s wife Meghan Markle had a  ‘messiah complex’ which led her to clash with Palace staff – but the Duke would reportedly always rush to her defence.

‘I don’t mean that in a critical way because all her big ideas were about doing good,’ they said.

‘She once said, “What Diana started I want to finish,” and we took that to mean she wanted to become a sort of globetrotting champion of the poor and the marginalised.’ 

But staff also highlighted Harry’s ‘tendency to defend anything and everything Meghan does’ when his wife clashed with royal aides 

Before Harry met the former Suits actress, courtiers noted, he had been ‘reasonably happy’ and ‘pretty easy-going’, enjoying a close relationship with his older brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate. 

At the same time, there were concerns about what the Duke was going to do after completing his military service, with one courtier claiming the younger son of King Charles ‘was always a problem’. 

Senior advisers knew that Harry was never going to be happy navigating the royal round partly because he was easily frustrated with ‘all the handshaking and small talk’ but also due to his resentment at being the Spare. 

When he met Meghan – an actress who was best known for her role on NBC’s legal drama Suits – there was renewed hope within the walls of Buckingham Palace that she would keep Harry ‘out of trouble’ and ‘give him something to focus on’. 

Members of the old guard at the palace weren’t particularly concerned that Meghan, who was born in the United States, was a so-called outsider because Harry was ‘never going to be King’. 

However, it soon became clear Meghan’s aspirations for her life as a senior member of the Royal Family were starkly different to what the Palace had planned for her and Prince Harry. 

One of Queen Elizabeth II’s former courtiers told Quinn that Meghan just ‘wanted to do her own thing’ and ‘felt constrained’ by the limits of her public-facing work as decided by the courtiers, senior staff members, and senior royals. 

However, Harry was so enamoured by the possibility of doing things differently, he staunchly defended Meghan when she butted heads with Palace officials. 

Meanwhile, one of Prince Harry’s military friends said he was ‘waiting for a woman to mould him’ before he met Meghan. 

After their marriage, one of Harry’s now-retired senior aides added, the Duke began to view his ‘core activity’ as ‘being with Meghan’ – rather than attending events like other royal family members – and ‘increasingly adopted her views’. 

One former staffer also noted he was ‘far more concerned about social issues and the rights of minorities than he’d ever been before Meghan’s arrival’.

Elsewhere in the book, it is claimed that Meghan convinced Harry ‘he was being neglected, sidelined, and undervalued’ by the Firm, and felt that their Nottingham Cottage residence was a ‘reflection’ of how the Royal Family was ‘belittling’ him. 

Harry had lived in Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace since 2013 and Meghan joined him there after the couple announced their engagement in 2017. 

They later moved into Frogmore Cottage in Windsor at the beginning of 2019 before the birth of their first child, Archie.

Prince William and Kate also lived in the two-bedroom property from 2011 until 2013 and moved to Kensington Palace when their son, Prince George, was a few months old. 

Prince Harry and Meghan announced their decision to step down as senior royals and move abroad on January 8, 2020 – triggering a family schism that was quickly dubbed ‘Megxit’.

‘After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution,’ the couple posted to their now-defunct joint Instagram account.

‘We intend to step back as “senior” members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen,’ the statement read. 

Yes, Ma’am – The Secret Life of Royal Servants by Tom Quinn (published by Biteback, £20) is available for pre-order.