Since Prince Harry quit his royal role in 2020 for a new life in the United States, he has only been reunited with the now Prince of Wales a handful of times. There is no sign of reconciliation on the cards, particularly after the release of the Netflix show ‘Harry & Meghan’ and the bombshell memoir ‘Spare,’ in which Prince Harry revealed a series of allegations against the Royal Family.
One of those tense reunions between the warring pair came in April 2021 when Harry returned to the UK for the funeral of the late Prince Philip. Writing in his memoir, Spare, Harry claimed that he “stopped cold” while speaking with William, who used a “secret code” they had for “times of extreme crisis”. The three-word code was “on mummy’s life”.
Harry claims William said to him: “Harold you must listen to me, I just want you to be happy, Harold, I swear, I swear on mummy’s life.”
Prince Harry detailed that William had “used the secret code, the universal password, ever since we were boys, those three words were to be used only in times of extreme crisis, ‘on mummy’s life’.”
He went on to detail how they had reserved that vow for times when they believed one of them needed to be heard.
The duke wrote: “It stopped me cold, as it was meant to. Not because he’d used it, but because it didn’t work. I simply didn’t believe him.”
Elsewhere in Spare, Harry writes how William attacked him during another confrontation at Kensington Palace, how he grabbed Harry by the collar, ripping his necklace, knocking him to the floor.
Prince Harry and Prince William both met again and attended the funeral of their uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes, in Snettisham, Norfolk, on August 28, 2024. The memorial service took place close to the royal Sandringham Estate.
They said: “William and Harry were both there but we never saw them speak to each other and they were keeping their distance.”
Lord Fellowes was married to Lady Jane Spencer, Princess Diana’s sister, for more than 40 years. They had three children together and he was uncle to Prince William and Prince Harry.