It was a rare moment — only the second time Prince William uttered his estranged brother’s name in public in seven years. “I hope we don’t go back to some of the practices in the past, that Harry and I had to grow up with,” the future king said of his plans for the monarchy on an episode of Eugene Levy’s AppleTV+ series, The Reluctant Traveler. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure we don’t regress in that situation.”
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William’s surprising name-drop was “an olive branch” to Prince Harry, a source tells the Examiner, adding that more than five years after “Megxit” — amid pleas from his wife, Princess Kate, 43, and father, King Charles III — the royal is “finally coming around to the idea of truce talks.”
But only on his terms. “There’s no way he’s willing to pick up the phone and do this casually,” the source says of William, 43, who was badly burned by Harry’s detailed accounts of their private arguments and phone calls. Since he and wife Meghan, 44, stepped down from their royal duties and moved to California in 2020, Harry has told all in multiple interviews and his 2023 memoir, Spare.
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Since then, William has been careful not to interact with Harry, 41, on the three occasions — all family funerals — that the brothers have been in each other’s presence. Anything more, says the source, “would need to be a supervised discussion, handled with total discretion.”
Especially because Harry still hasn’t quite learned his lesson. After reports described the Duke of Sussex’s first step toward peace with the royal family — a 54-minute reunion with his father in September — as “distinctly formal,” the Invictus Games founder’s spokesperson issued a rare statement clarifying details from the private meeting and blasting “sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son,” according to The Sun.
The move didn’t help Harry’s cause among palace aides.
“A lot of courtiers still don’t trust him an inch,” says the source, “and they think it’s crucial for William to stand his ground and stay far away from the Sussexes.”
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William has long been inclined to agree. “He’s made it known time and again that he doesn’t approve of how easy-handed Charles has been with Harry and Meghan,” says an insider, adding that William has been plotting to strip them of their titles as soon as he takes the throne.
But the king, 76, and Princess Kate, who both gained new perspectives on life because of their cancer battles, have been insisting that the stubborn prince bury the hatchet instead, says the source.
“There’s only so much resistance he can put up against his own wife and father, who are telling him in no uncertain terms that enough is enough and it’s high time for peace.”
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