A set of three brothers are at the centre of love, drama and tragedy in the lives of Prince Harry and Prince William.
The van Straubenzee boys were classmates of the young princes at Ludgrove School - and have remained close friends into their adult years.
Henry, Thomas and Charlie all get mentioned numerous times in Harry's highly-anticipated autobiography Spare.
The van Straubenzee family, originally from the Netherlands, are members of the landed gentry of Spennithorne, North Yorkshire and have a strong military tradition.
One of the biggest revelations to come out of Spare is Harry's bombshell claim that he wasn't William's best man - and it was in fact one of the brothers.
Another was secretly one of Harry's best men, while the middle brother tragically died at a heartbreakingly young age.
Henry van Straubenzee
Harry was close pals with all of the brothers - but Henry was his best mate growing up.
The two chums were actually both called Henry, but Harry called him Henners and he was nicknamed Haz.
The pair were so close that people referred to them as 'Jack and Russell', perhaps because the royal princes had that breed of dog at home.
When Harry wasn't roaming the school corridors, he was hanging out in the grounds with Henners, who is described as being skinny with no muscles, hair that stood on end and "all heart".
In Spare, Harry recalls eating strawberries in a farm by the school grounds and they were once caught literally red-handed by a teacher due to their crimson palms.
The Duke of Sussex also explains how lonely he felt at Eton because Henry had gone to Harrow School instead.
Henners got a place at Newcastle University and won an Army scholarship to The Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, where he was due to go after university and a year out to teach at a school in Uganda.
The lads had planned to meet up in Africa, with Harry writing in Spare: "He didn't take the future seriously, didn’t take anything seriously. Life as it comes, Haz. That was Henners, always and forever. I envied his tranquillity."
Tragically, Henry passed away in car accident in December 2002 at the age of just 18, as a passenger in the car that drove into a tree when leaving a party near Ludgrove.
Harry says hearing that his best mate had died "just like mummy" took him back to the night King Charles told him that Princess Diana had lost her life.
Members of the Royal Family went to the funeral and the princes have been patrons of of the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund since 2009.
Elsewhere in Spare, Harry recalls having a phone conversation with Henry's brother Thomas where they reminisced about old times with Henners.
In December last year, the feuding princes joined forces in a rare show of unity to honour their pal.
The brothers penned a joint letter for a carol concert in memory of Henners, praising his parents for their charity work and the extraordinary achievements of the memorial fund.
Part of the letter read: "Henry's legacy will live on through the incredible achievements of his mum and dad have accomplished over the years. For those of us who knew Henners, we will always miss his mischievous charm and hilarious sense of humour."
Thomas van Straubenzee
Eldest brother Thomas has been close with both Harry and William since their school days - but there has been recent controversy over his best man status.
The 41-year-old, who was the same age as William when they attended Ludgrove School, accompanied the future king on his royal tour to New Zealand in 2005.
A former chartered surveyor, Thomas co-founded his own real estate firm and became head of a global wealth advisory team.
In 2011, Harry quickly drove to help his pal after hearing him being mugged for his Blackberry while they chatted on the phone.
Harry, just back from US helicopter training, searched for him until intuition took him to the local police station, where he gave a statement.
The eldest van Straubenzee brother is one of Princess Charlotte's five godparents.
Thomas was married to Lady Melissa Percy, daughter of the 12th Duke of Northumberland, between 2013 and 2016.
In 2020, he married the assistant head teacher at Princess Charlotte and Prince George's school, Lucy Lanigan-O'Keeffe
One of the biggest bombshells dropped by Harry in Spare is the claim that he wasn't best man at William's wedding.
Harry was officially classed as William's best man at his wedding to Kate in 2011 and even travelled with the future King to Westminster Abbey in a Bentley.
But in an astonishing declaration, he claimed it was a "bare-faced lie" and it was actually two of his brother's close friends, James Meade and Thomas Van Straubenzee.
Harry says he was demoted to act as a mere compere and introduce the pair, who gave the traditional speech at the reception.
Charlie van Straubenzee
Youngest brother Charlie is another childhood friend of the princes - and shared a reputation with Harry as being a 'perpetual bachelor'.
The 34-year-old, who is Head of UK Financial Intermediaries for Brown Advisor, an investment management firm, reportedly chose Harry to be best man at his wedding to Daisy Jenks in August 2018.
In Spare, Harry reveals that he also picked his "old friend" Charlie for that job, claiming in his new memoir the Royal Family lied lied about wo was really best man.
He suggests that William failed to attend a drinks get-together he organised with friends the eve of his big day at five-star Coworth Park Hotel in Ascot because he may have been sulking.
Harry writes: "Was he sulking because he wasn't my best man? Was he annoyed because I had asked my old friend Charlie instead? (The Royal Family announced Willy was the best man as they had done with me when he and Kate got married. Did that have something to do with it?)."
According to reports, Charlie gave an incredible speech at the evening reception at Frogmore House.
He cheekily made fun of Harry's role as dormitory monitor during their school days, saying the young prince stole his teddy bear and chucked it on the roof.
He added: "Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you, how can you put someone in charge of a dorm when that someone is worse behaved than the whole dorm combined?"
Buckingham and Kensington Palaces have refused to comment on the contents of the book, which hit the shelves on Tuesday.
Spare has been released at all book stores and can be bought online here.
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