Why Princess Diana was preparing Prince Harry to become king - not Prince William

Diana, Princess of Wales, was allegedly planning for Harry, Duke of Sussex, to ascend to the throne instead of William, Prince of Wales, according to a royal correspondent.

As the eldest son of King Charles III, Prince William, 43, is the heir apparent and first in line to the British throne. Behind him sit his three children, Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, seven.

Despite officially stepping down as a senior royal in early 2020, Prince Harry, 41, remains fifth in the line of succession.

However, according to a new report, Diana had very different aspirations for her offspring.

Journalist Richard Kay, who maintained a close friendship with the late Princess of Wales, recently alleged that she was preparing for Harry to choose the crown over his older brother.

It's claimed that Diana, Princess of Wales, was preparing Harry to wear the crown over William (Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images)

“I think William has been a bit of a surprise. He was a shy young man,” Kay said on the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential podcast.

“Certainly, when his mother was still alive, she would tell me that she never really thought that William wanted the ‘top job,’ as she called it. The idea that he would one day wear the crown.”

The royal expert alleged that Diana was ‘preparing the way for the possibility’ that Harry would be the one to succeed his father Charles, who was the Prince of Wales at the time of her death.

“She had a nickname for Harry: She used to call him 'Good King Harry' — a throwback to medieval days.

“Things haven’t worked out like that, and I think we are all rather grateful that they haven’t,” he added, claiming that William was probably the ‘right’ person for the job anyways.

The late royal apparently used to call her son 'Good King Harry' (Georges De Keerle/Getty Images)

The bombshell claims have since been discussed on an episode of Good Morning Britain.

“I think Diana may have thought it but, one has to bare in mind, that magical as she was in so many ways, she was also deeply emotional and very often erratic and we saw that tragically at the end of her life in 1997,” alleged royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.

“Harry was only 12. She couldn’t tell by then - this [Harry becoming King] was just an idea and obviously Richard Kay has had a lot of publicity mentioning it. I don’t doubt that he actually thought it.”

He went on to say that, like his mother, Harry was also ‘deeply emotional’ and had been as ‘traumatised’ by what happened to her.

“This would be a high-profile job he couldn’t possibly handle," Fitzwilliams added.

The royal succession claims have caused quite a stir online (Anwar Hussein/Getty Image)

Cultural commentator, Ateh Jewel, defended the father-of-two, claiming that if he and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, were to ascend to the throne, then it would ‘represent a very diverse modern Britain’.

“I'm very proud to be British. I'm very proud to be Nigerian and have Trinidadian heritage as well. This is a prince who has put his body and his blood and his life on the line in active duty, combat, for his family.

"[He has] shown huge amounts of integrity, literally protecting his wife and his family's mental health, risking them away and saving them what obviously seems quite a toxic environment,” she added.