Prince Harry returned to the UK this week and, unfortunately, his visit has been filled with headlines about accommodation issues and disputes with his family. While conversations have mainly focused on Prince Harry’s strained relationships with his dad, King Charles, and brother, Prince William, the Royal Family as a whole has been impacted. And this, says former royal butler Grant Harrold, includes the Princess of Wales.
Grant was butler to King Charles and Queen Camilla between 2004 and 2011, during which time he also served the Prince and Princess of Wales and Prince Harry. Speaking to Good Housekeeping, he says the Princess ‘will, unfortunately, always be dragged into any public royal rift,’ as Kate is such an important public face of the monarchy and Prince Harry’s sister-in-law.’
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From left: Prince Harry, Princess of Wales, Prince William in 2017
Despite this, Grant says Kate ‘has been making an active effort to separate herself from the negative noise surrounding Harry,’ but that she’ll still be ‘completely aware of everything that was playing out, as well as discussing it with the relevant people and family members’.
Jeff Spicer
The trio in 2016
At the heart of the headlines is a real family rift. ‘I can imagine Catherine being incredibly saddened by the whole situation,’ says Grant, given Kate has known Prince Harry for the best part of two decades. ‘Especially for her husband, who has essentially lost all contact with his younger brother.’
Chris Jackson
Prince William, King Charles and Prince Harry back in 2014
While, in recent years, it’s no secret that relationships within the Royal Family have faced challenges, Grant remembers a time when this wasn’t the case. ‘In my time working with the family, everything was a unified front. They all got along and worked as a team,’ he says. Nowadays, however, he says the situation has become ‘a bit of a mess’, which he describes as ‘a real shame’ and says it’s ‘now just getting worse’.
Stephen Pond
The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Christmas Day in 2018
While Prince William and Prince Harry’s brotherly relationship remains tricky, the Princess of Wales’ bond with her own brother, James, appeared strong as he joined her for the National Three Peaks Challenge recently. The pair climbed Snowdon, Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike together within 24 hours, with James revealing on Instagram that the idea had originated while Kate was still in hospital (she was previously treated for cancer).
At the finish line, their parents, Carole and Michael, joined the Prince of Wales, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis to congratulate them. ‘Having her family and children at the finish line reinforces the united front the family often shows,’ Grant says, but adds that, in this case, ‘I don’t believe this is her distancing herself from the disjointed relationships of Harry and his father. This was an important milestone for her; it would have been essential for her to have her immediate family there.’ He says it also marked a shift for The Princess, as ‘the images she shared from the experience were incredibly personal, which she hasn’t done much of before.’
Through her challenge, the Princess was raising money for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, connected to the hospital where she had her treatment. ‘The greater the attention, the more donations it will bring to the charity, which is the whole point,’ Grant says. ‘Kate understands the power of those moments and the attention it would bring.’
Despite the rumbling noise around Prince Harry’s impending visit at the time, ‘Kate wouldn’t have been thinking about the family drama in this moment, it was about using her profile to maximise fundraising and shining a spotlight on their work,’ Grant says.
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Prince Harry attends ‘The Invictus Games Foundation Conversation: From Policy to Practice’ at Chatham House, London on Tuesday 7 July 2026
Prince Harry arrived in the UK earlier this week for the Invictus Games, a sporting event he founded for injured military veterans. While Prince Harry’s wife, Megan, Duchess of Sussex, and children, Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie haven’t joined him this week, it’s thought that this was the original plan.
Anwar Hussein
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2017
While it hasn’t been announced whether they’ll join later on, Grant says, ‘If they do arrive in the UK, I think their only potential meeting would be with the King and Queen. I don’t think other members of the family would make the effort at this point. But it would be nice for the cousins to see each other and get to know each other more.’
Grant Harrold is working with finance platform Vettory.