Sisters doing it their way
As it’s emerged that royal brothers Princes William and Harry have been described as the ‘sensible’ one and the ‘loose cannon’, meet the sisters who can relate to exactly that
The NI siblings who can relate to being polar opposites like princes William and Harry
IN the week of the 23rd anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, the alleged fallout between Princes William and Harry continues to make headlines.
The differences in personalities of the brothers have been a talking point, too. But earlier this month, royal commentator Duncan Larcombe claimed that Prince Harry “resents the perception that Prince William is sensible while he’s seen as a loose cannon”.
A familiar family trope for sure, but while the royal brothers appear to struggle with it, for lots of siblings the ‘sensible’ versus ‘ loose cannon’ split is something they manage to take in their stride.
Here, Co Down sisters Naomi Thompson and Lyndsey Campbell explain what it’s like to be chalk and cheese — yet still be incredibly close.
Naomi: the loose cannon Naomi (31) is an underwriter for an insurance company, and admits she’s been the ‘loose cannon’ of the family more or less since birth.
“It’s so funny because it’s always been that way,” laughs Naomi, who lives in Scarva with partner Michael Burns. “If you look at us both as people, we’re like chalk and cheese. She’s quite sensible and I guess you wouldn’t really say that about me.
“It’s funny because Lyndsey has two children of her own now and we can see the same sort of thing happening a generation on from us. Even my mum says her daughter Scarlett, who’s the younger at five, is like me when I was her age.
“I haven’t really got myself in lots of hot water over the years but Lyndsey would think more about what she says and does, whereas I’d be more hot-headed. It might stand me in better stead to follow her lead a bit more on that.”
Naomi reveals her more adventurous spirit is still very much to the fore today.
“One thing I’ve done recently that Lyndsey would absolutely hate was go on a reality TV show with my friend,” she says. “It came up somewhere and then he applied for the two of us.
“It just kept progressing and progressing and all of a sudden that was it, we were in. We ended up on a flight across the world with just a week’s notice, so it was brilliant. I have to keep the details under wraps for the moment but it’s very exciting.
“I loved it, but it was something Lyndsey just wouldn’t have considered. It’s her idea of actual horror. When I told her about it, she was asking what work would think about giving me time off and things like that, but I figured it out and they were really good about it.
“That’s kind of my personality I suppose. I just start the ball rolling on stuff and work it out as I go.”
And she recalls that differences between the two sisters have been obvious since they were very young.
“Even when I was a kid, about five or six, I remember my parents decorated my room with beautiful Little Bo Peep stuff, new wallpaper, the whole lot,” she ponders.
“Then I got sent to my room for being naughty and I sat there and picked the border off the wall. Lyndsey came up and she couldn’t believe what I’d done. She was saying to me, totally shocked, ‘You’re going to get shouted at’. But I said, ‘ No I’m not, I’m going to fix it’. And I tried to stick it back on with Vicks Vaporub.
“Needless to say I didn’t get away with it. The room stank and the wallpaper was all greasy by the time I was done with it.
“By the time we were in our teens, the age gap of four and a half years meant that when I started at Strathearn School in east Belfast, Lyndsey was in lower sixth. She didn’t really want me anywhere near her at school because I was just embarrassing, but we started to get close when I was about 16 or 17.
“I didn’t do anything too crazy as a teenager, but I was more interested in pushing boundaries and seeing what I could get away with than she was.”
The path to university education was typical for the sisters, with Naomi eager to spread her
Naomi has always been pretty bonkers while I’m more inclined to stick to the rules’
Lyndsey Campbell
wings and study across the water.
“Lyndsey was very studious at school and worked hard to get the grades she wanted,” she says. “I took a more of a ‘ winging it’ approach, but I still went to university. And while Lyndsey stayed closer to home, going to Coleraine, I couldn’t wait to get some independence and I went to Newcastle-upon-tyne to do journalism. I did a fair bit of partying too.
“I didn’t end up working in journalism, and I think looking back, university was as much for me about getting that sense of freedom as it was about the subject I was studying.
“There are plenty of differences between us, but I guess the reasons for them — as well as just the basic difference in our personalities — aren’t that complicated.
“Having her as an older sister gave me some security because she’d been through it all before and I’ve always known she’s there if I need her.
“If I ever have a problem I go to Lyndsey, and I’ve grown up with her always looking after me, not in a patronising way, but in a lovely way. She comes to me too, though, but my answer is usually to tell her what she’s worrying about isn’t the end of the world.”
And now, their bond is stronger than ever. “Now that we’re adults we’re in very different positions,” Naomi says.
“She has the two kids and even during lockdown you could see the contrast because she’s had looking after them, home schooling and her full-on, full-time job to contend with while it was just me and Michael in our little bubble.
“The differences people notice between us, Lyndsey getting her head down and trying hard while I tend to leave things to fate, haven’t really been an issue. We usually laugh about it. Our approaches are pretty different, but she’s brilliant and we’re really close and happy as sisters.”
Lyndsey: the sensible one Lyndsey Campbell (36) is a biomedical scientist and mum to Noah, eight, and five-year-old Scarlett. She confesses she’s grown up the more ‘sensible’ sister.
“I guess I’ ve always been quite sensible and methodical in my approach,” says Lyndsey, who lives in Conlig with her kids and husband Sam (41). “Naomi is more of a ‘ you only live once’ kind of person.
“But I think that’s the thing with a lot of first and second siblings. I’ve seen it a bit myself with my two. With the older one you’re more anxious and very much in control of everything going on, but by the time number two comes along you’re a bit more relaxed. I think it probably happens in lots of families.
“Naomi has always been pretty bonkers. She’s very outgoing, and even as kids if we were on holiday she’d be the first to make friends. Even if the children were older she’d be straight up in the middle of whatever was going on. My daughter is the same now.
“I’ve always been more inclined to stick to the rules, and I suppose in childhood I was a bit of a goody two shoes. I think I’d describe myself as a perfect geek as a child, I was always reading, studying or playing musical instruments.
“And while Naomi had a huge big circle of friends, as well as her own close-knit group, I had a smaller group of people I was very close to. She’s just always been very confident and outgoing, whereas I’d be a bit shier.
“As a biomedical scientist, I’ve had to work quite hard through school and university. It took a lot of studying, and I’ve always been academically minded.
“Naomi didn’t go down the same path, but she’s still done really well.
“I suppose growing up she listened to a bit of that, about me working so hard, and she decid
ed no, I’ll do my own thing. When I went to university in Coleraine it was because I really wanted to do the course I did, whereas she was a bit wilder and she hasn’t ended up working in the subject she studied. But she had a great time.”
Lyndsey says that the differences between her and her sister make things interesting.
“I got together with Sam when I was 18, and we’ve been settled for a long time,” she says. “We’ve been married 10 years this year, and motherhood was a big thing for me.
“Naomi is brilliant as an auntie. She’s so, so good with the kids but she’s just recently moved so we don’t see as much of each other as we’d like.
“Yes, we’re pretty different, but it all balances out in the end and I think it would be very boring if everyone was the same.
“I think it’s nice that we’re different, and that’s something we agree on.
“For now, our priorities are different because my work is 24/7. I’m really quite career-driven and I’ve got the responsibilities of the kids and running a home.
“She’s able to be more carefree in many ways, which is brilliant, but she can put her sensible hat on, too, when she needs to.”
‘It would be very boring if everyone was the same’