Tragedy, Drama, and Love: The Van Straubenze Brothers’ Connection to Prince Harry and Prince William

Prince Harry's highly anticipated autobiography, Spare, has revealed a lot about the lives of the young princes, including their close friendship with a set of three brothers from Lovegrove School.

The Van Straubenze family, originally from the Netherlands, are members of the landed gentry of Spenethorn, North Yorkshire, and have a strong military tradition.

Henry, Thomas, and Charlie were classmates of the young princes and have remained close friends into their adult years.

One of the biggest revelations in the book is Harry's claim that he wasn't William's best man at his wedding to Catherine.

Instead, it was one of the four mentioned Van Straubenze brothers.

The older brother was William's best man, while the younger one, Henry, was Harry's good friend.

In Spare, Harry talks about how Henry tragically died in a car crash at the age of 18, just like their mother, and hadn't been wearing a seatbelt.

It's unclear if the family wants to be mentioned in the book and wants the seatbelt mentioned.

Despite the tragedy, the Van Straubenze family remained close to both William and Harry.

Eldest brother Thomas has been a close friend of both princes since their school days.

He is also one of Princess Charlotte's five godparents.

However, there has been recent controversy over his best man status.

Harry claims that being the best man at his brother's wedding was a lie and was all for show.

The reason Harry gives for not being William's best man is that he didn't provide the best man's speech.

However, this claim has been disputed by multiple sources who say that Harry did give the speech.

Another revelation in the book is that one of the four mentioned brothers was secretly one of Harry's best men.

This brother, whose identity is not revealed, played a significant role in Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle.

At the annual fundraiser memorial for Henry, the Van Straubenze brother that died, Meghan and Harry attended and Harry chose the Van Straubenze platform about poverty and education to discuss how Meghan cares about menstruation.

Meghan also read a poem about activism at the memorial.

It's unclear what the Van Straubenze family thinks about Harry and Meghan, but they remain close to William and Catherine.

In fact, Harry was the best man for the third brother in August 2018, shortly after he and Meghan got married.

However, the wedding was not without controversy.

There were lots of photos of Meghan at the wedding on Getty Images, and lots of paparazzi there that day calling out to her.

It was also Meghan's birthday.

There are many photos of her taken before the one with a bra showing where her dress is fully buttoned up.

Her hand seems to be strangely in exactly the right position to be unbuttoning her own blouse.

She's staring directly at the paparazzi and smiling, as she always does.

You can tell by the positions of the people that this immediately precedes the many photos of her in the same spot with her dress unbuttoned.

Despite the drama and controversy, the Van Straubenze brothers remain an important part of the lives of both William and Harry.

They have been through tragedy and loss together, but their friendship has endured.