Next year will poignantly mark 30 years since Prince William and Prince Harry were a picture of unity as they walked side-by-side behind their mother, Princess Diana’s coffin, but today, the brothers appear to be all but strangers.
But after having not spoken for almost four years, Harry’s speech at an Australian event last week to raise awareness for mental health, during which he candidly spoke about the devastating emotional effects of his mother’s death, could have provided an opportunity for William to reach out and offer an olive branch over their shared heartbreak.
Instead, a source tells us that Harry’s comments, seeming to denounce the Royal Family or indeed the Firm on a larger scale, saying, ‘I was [feeling like], ‘I don’t want this job, I don’t want this role…It killed my mum and I was very much against it,’ have now only angered William.
The heir has issued an ultimatum to his father, the King ©Getty Images
And it may have been the final straw for the heir to the throne, as our source says he’s now imploring King Charles wake up to the reality; delivering him an ultimatum between welcoming Harry and Meghan Markle back into the royal fold, or working with William to create a new pathway for the monarchy going forward.
The insider says, ‘The fact that Harry is openly walking around saying he didn’t want to be a royal, in Australia of all places, where the King is still head of state, has enraged William. Especially considering there are members of the establishment pushing for Harry and Meghan to be brought back and arguing that reconciliation is what the family needs to rehab their profile after the Andrew scandal.
‘That sickens William, and he doesn’t feel like he’s being given any say in this because his father is humouring these opinions and edging closer to signing off on what he perceives will be a disaster.’
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Meanwhile, following a 19-month estrangement, King Charles, 77, met with Harry in September at his home of Clarence House, with the brief afternoon tea appearing to signal the first step on a road to reconciliation between father and son.
However, it has been widely reported that William is strongly averse to any make-up meeting with his younger brother and could strip both Harry and Meghan of their royal titles when he becomes King. So, the source says, the thought of the royal family’s ‘gruesome twosome’ being welcomed back with open arms is ‘horrifying’ to him.
‘From William’s perspective, if this goes ahead, it will be the beginning of the end. Allowing the Sussexes to come back in and shamelessly exploit their titles all over again is horrifying to him,’ the insider says.
‘He says if Charles gives in to this, he’s just going to be giving them more rope to hang them all on because he’s going to be the one left to clean up the mess. He’s trying to make his father see this from his perspective, but getting nowhere.’
It’s been six years since Harry, 41, and Meghan, 44, first stepped back as senior working royals and, at the time, Harry had wanted to remain in a ‘half in, half out’ role to continue with his philanthropic work – a proposal that was ultimately rejected by the late Queen Elizabeth II during the now infamous ‘Sandringham Summit’.
But after reports last year of a campaign to ingratiate the Sussexes back into the hearts of the UK public, reportedly dubbed ‘Operation Bring Harry Back from the Cold’, the success of Harry and Meghan’s Australian quasi-royal tour has brought that same sentiment back into the limelight and, we’re told, back on the agenda for the Firm.
‘If you’d told William a year ago that the Sussexes could be in with a chance of their half-in, half-out proposal, he would have dismissed it as delusional nonsense,’ the insider says.
‘But so much has changed behind the scenes, and at this point in time, there’s no denying that King Charles and a growing number of other senior aides are warming to the idea, so the possibility simply cannot be discounted.’
They add, ‘At the very least they want peace and are tired with worrying about the situation [with Harry and Meghan] when there are so many other matters to deal with. There’s a view amongst these figures that the Sussexes, and certainly Harry, are doing a good job with these quasi-tours and that it would serve the family well to have them on side instead of deriding their efforts or pouring cold water on them.’
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In stark contrast, it has been widely reported that William, 43, remains ‘furious’ over the three years the Sussexes spent lambasting the Royal Family through their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey; their 2022 Netflix docu-series, Harry & Meghan; and Harry’s 2023 bombshell memoir, Spare. And the source says that, unlike his father, William is much less likely to forgive and forget the effects their scathing verbal attacks have had on the reputation of the monarchy.
‘William is unequivocal in his view that Harry and Meghan shouldn’t be allowed to set foot across the threshold, let alone have any pat on the back for their money-making efforts,’ the insider says.
‘He maintains they’re greedy, treacherous opportunists and thinks it’s utterly ridiculous that his father and others are turning a blind eye, even when Harry has the gall to keep running down his time in the family and tell everyone how it was a life he basically hated.’
It’s now also been two months since Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s shocking arrest in February, and while the scandal has engulfed the Royal Family, the insider says the time has come for the firm to ‘cling to all the positivity’ they can.
And with the countdown to Harry’s return in July for the Invictus Games now on, we’re told his visit, potentially with Meghan and their children – Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four – by his side, could see the Sussexes and the royals reach a ‘compromise’.
The insider says, ‘The monarchy is still reeling from all the turmoil and scandal the Yorks have inflicted, so there’s no doubting they need to cling to all the positivity they possibly can at the moment.
‘At the end of the day Harry and Meghan aren’t doing anything intrinsically evil or wrong, and the Invictus Games being held in the UK represents a perfect opportunity to build a path to peace and strike some type of compromise that will hopefully keep both sides happy.
‘Certainly, the talk of stripping their HRH titles has radically calmed down, to a point that even William seems to have accepted it’s a futile argument as his father won’t sanction whilst he’s still King.’
Now we’re told that William could be forced to take a step back from sharing his views on the Sussexes and may have to wait until he is monarch before he’s able to put in place his own vision of the future monarchy.
The insider says, ‘For Charles it’s irritating to have William constantly chipping away and trying to undermine his brother, he’s tired of the negativity and has essentially banned the subject at this point, saying it serves no purpose and everyone needs to get along.
‘So until he and Kate take the Crown, William is biting his lip, even though he’s just as determined as he ever was to implement his own changes [to the monarchy] and put the Sussexes firmly in their place. He is sticking to his guns and saying that he’ll welcome Harry and Meghan back in the fold when hell freezes over.’
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