If you're an heir to the throne, life can be stressful. Sure, you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but there are some serious sacrifices you also have to make. Namely: living a 'normal' life that isn't intruded on by the media and the public.

With Princes William and Harry growing up in an age where social media emerged, it was natural that they were curious to explore these platforms as a means of socialising with friends. But how did they navigate that when it was so publicly available to people they didn't know, too? A fake name, of course.

According to widespread reports (although nothing has actually been confirmed by Harry, for obvious reasons) the alias Prince Harry went by online up until 2012 was 'Spike Wells'.

Getty

The Telegraph reports that Harry's nickname is Spike, hence his choice to use that as his pseudonym. A Facebook profile going by the name 'Spike Wells' reportedly had more than 400 friends, "including some of Britain’s richest young men and women". But it was deleted in the wake of the Las Vegas drama that surrounded Harry when he was pictured naked and partying at a luxury hotel six years ago, after the Prince's advisers recommended he take down the page to prevent any further security breaches.

As far as we know now, Prince Harry doesn't have a personal social media account. He, Prince William and Kate Middleton are represented by the Kensington Royal Instagram and Twitter accounts, and following the engagement announcement, future Duchess Meghan Markle also deleted hers.

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Princess Eugenie recently became the first Royal to have her own personal social media account, after starting an Instagram of her own on International Women's Day in March this year.

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But it's not just Prince Harry who has assumed an alias to avoid being recognised in the past, it seems. According to Hello!, when Prince William enrolled at St Andrews university he unofficially went by the name 'Steve'. While all the Prince's official documents had his real name, William Wales, on them, friends of the future monarch referred to him as Steve when talking about him in public, in order to help him stay under the radar.

Prince William in 2003 while he was at university Getty Images

There's a hell of a lot to think about when you're born a Royal.

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