William and Harry's resurfaced banter went "too far," body language expert says

Anyone who's been following royal happenings — even from afar — over the past few years knows that Princes William and Harry don't have a good relationship right now.

But for one body language expert, a resurfaced video from 2009 appears to show cracks in their relationship even at the time, when their supposedly silly banter went "too far."

If Judi James is correct, this would corroborate Prince Harry's version of events shared in Spare, in which he depicted a strained relationship with his older brother as they were growing up.

The video comes from a joint interview William and Harry gave at the Royal Air Force Shawbury station in Shropshire, while they were living together nearby.

The clip starts with Harry saying William has "more brains" than him, with William rolling his eyes before adding that he also has better looks. That's when Harry calls out William's "baldness," to which the now-Prince of Wales says: "It's pretty rich coming from a ginger."

Throughout the video, the brothers continue to throw competitive jokes at each other.

"Banter can be a form of play-fighting among siblings, a way to establish pecking orders and to air complaints under the cover of humour," Judi explained to Express.

But for the expert, the exchange didn't seem so lighthearted as the two brothers continued to throw insults at each other.

"Even in families it needs to be finely tuned and this video of William and Harry exchanging endless banter as they are interviewed about their experiences as helicopter pilots does seem to throw up several red flags in terms of not knowing when to stop or how far to go," Judi said.

"Harry seems to try to praise his brother during their interview but when he speaks of William having 'the brains' William rolls his eyes in a dramatic gesture of rejection and exasperation."

Judi felt that Harry and William had different motivations throughout the course of the interview. "Harry sounds very earnest through much of this interview and although he happily competes in the banter too, it feels as though he would have liked some moments of grown-up seriousness and maybe a little respect for what he has achieved," she said.

The expert continued: "Their banter is childish. William’s 'baldness' is brought up, getting the response that Harry is 'a ginger.' It’s easy to hear that this is a 'comedy' routine they have used as a way of trading virtual blows for years."

Although of course anyone who has siblings will be able to recognise the type of joking around that happens between them, unfortunately Prince Harry wrote in his memoir about not always getting on well with his brother "Willy" as boys. We hope they patch things up in the future.