Prince Harry was once left baffled by a bizarre Christmas present he received from one of his royal relatives which he described as “cold-blooded”.

The Royal Family are known for their gag gifts during Christmas, which they traditionally exchange on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas day to honour their German heritage.

The Duke of Sussex, who reportedly was into the humourous gifts himself, would follow the royal tradition every year before he stepped down as a senior working royal and moved to the US with wife Meghan Markle in 2020.

Harry wrote about his unusual gift in his memoir, Spare, and revealed that it was given to him by his great-aunt and the late Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, or “Aunt Margo” as he called her.

The duke claimed he didn’t know Margaret very well despite sharing “12.5 percent” of her DNA.

He wrote: “I didn’t know Princess Margaret, whom I called Aunt Margo. She was my great-aunt, yes, we shared 12.5 percent of our DNA, we spent the bigger holidays together, and yet she was almost a total stranger. Like most Britons, I mainly knew of her.

The prince added: “We were at Sandringham in a big room with a long table covered with white cloth and white name cards. By custom, at the start of the night, each of us located our place, stood before our mound of presents. Then suddenly, everyone began opening at the same time.

“Standing before my pile, I chose to open the smallest present first. The tag said: From Aunt Margo. I looked over, called out: Thank you, Aunt Margo! I do hope you like it, Harry.”

It turned out that Princess Margaret had given him a “special” biro with a rubber fish wrapped around it.

Harry wrote: “I tore off the paper. It was… A biro? I said: Oh. A biro. Wow. She said: Yes. A biro. I said: Thank you so much. But it wasn’t just any biro, she pointed out. It had a tiny rubber fish wrapped around it. I said: Oh. A fish biro! OK. I told myself: That is cold-blooded.”

The prince also wrote that he and Princess Margaret “should’ve been friends” as the Firm’s “two spares”.

He said: “Now and then, as I grew older, it struck me that Aunt Margo and I should’ve been friends. We had so much in common. Two Spares.

“Her relationship with Granny wasn’t an exact analogue of mine with Willy, but pretty close. The simmering rivalry, the intense competition (driven largely by the older sibling), it all looked familiar.

“Aunt Margo also wasn’t that dissimilar from Mummy. Both rebels, both labelled as sirens.”