Prince Andrew ‘tried to seem important’ during ‘boastful’ childhood

Prince Andrew reportedly 'boasted' about his privileges as a young royal and even 'tried to appeared more important' than he really was as the monarch's second child, a royal expert has claimed.

Vanity Fair royal editor Tina Brown, in her book The Palace Papers, wrote that while Andrew enjoyed all the royal privileges as a young boy and was well-loved by the Queen and the late Prince Philip, his reality was more of a 'mirage' because he was the second son.

"One senses that there was always a hollowness in Andrew's personality. That's why he laughed louder and boasted so much and tried to seem important," Brown commented.

She further noted: "By the time he went to Gordonstoun, he knew that for all the palaces he lived in and the servants who Sir'd him, he was the second son whose childhood parity with Charles was a mirage."

Brown went on to explain: "Only the monarch's firstborn wakes up every morning knowing that to advance to the ultimate prize, all he has to do is stay alive. Only the first-born son is invested as Prince of Wales."

"Only the firstborn son becomes the Duke of Cornwall, which includes being handed a vast private estate that generates around $30 million in annual income — all of which went to Charles."

"The winner-takes-all calculus has been baked into every generation of the British monarchy. While there are ships, schools, peninsulas, and even a nursery rhyme named for the Duke of York, the title throws off neither an income nor even a stately home," Brown added.

"The only certainty for the second son is that, as the years go by, his importance will decline as he slides inexorably down in the line of succession," she concluded.

As for his great relationship with his parents, Brown noted that Prince Philip felt as though Andrew was more like him than Charles.