HARRY AND WILL’S TENSE REUNION
THE WARRING BROTHERS PROVE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AFTER A FROSTY REUNION
July 1 marked the highly anticipated reunion that royal fans had been hoping would see Prince William and Prince Harry put aside their feud while coming together to honour their late mother on what would have been her 60th birthday. But any hopes of a reconciliation were quickly dashed as the brothers’ tense stance at the unveiling of a statue of Princess Diana proved their rift is far from over.
The Duke of Sussex, 36, barely spent any time with his older brother after he was spotted driving into Kensington Palace just minutes before the big reveal. Witnesses who attended the event explained that while the pair were pictured standing side by side, in reality, their brief exchange was awkward, with the siblings spending “as little time together as possible”.
“The damage is well and truly done in their relationship,” a witness tells WHO. “They looked like they didn’t want to be near each other. I don’t see how things can ever be the same again
if even the memory of their mum can’t help them patch things up.”
Neither was there much chance of a heart-to-heart after the ceremony. Harry fled the palace grounds after spending just 20 minutes at a small reception, which was also attended by his Spencer relatives including Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer, and her two sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes. The prince then made a quick dash on July 2 back to the US, where he’d left behind wife Meghan Markle, 39, son Archie, 2, and newborn daughter Lili.
Those who know the brothers admit that even if Harry was willing to work on the relationship, he has burned far too many bridges with the Duke of Cambridge, 39, who finds it “almost impossible” to trust him again. This year has seen Harry give a series of bombshell interviews to the US media, where he has accused the royal family of racism, neglect and passing on “genetic pain”.
“Despite William and Harry coming together this week for the sole cause of commemorating their mother’s legacy, Harry is very much on the outside,” a source told British newspaper The Mirror. “It was nothing more, there was nothing to discuss. Things are still far too raw for William and other members of the family to entertain Harry, so it’s best to let things lie for the moment,” the source explained.
There were some doubts over whether Harry would even attend the ceremony. However, he appears to have reasoned that it was a step he had to take in order to align himself more closely to his mother’s legacy while distancing himself from his Windsor relatives. Harry has continually likened himself and Meghan to Diana since the couple fled the UK. When the Sussexes launched their Archewell website, Diana was front and centre, with the opening line reading, “I am my mother’s son,” next to an image of the late princess carrying a young Harry on her shoulders.
“[Harry’s] competing with his brother and his father to be the better royal and more like Diana,” royal expert Angela Levin told The Andrew Pierce Show. “I think all this laying down laws is part of his determination to be a royal but in a very different way, a Californian way, where he is the person who is going to continue Diana’s work more than anyone,” she explained.
There is no doubt that Harry and Meghan’s announcement in January 2020 that they were stepping down from royal duties threw the monarchy into a period of turmoil. Since this time, William and wife Kate Middleton, 39, have steadily increased their workload and emerged as a muchneeded source of stability for the royals. It’s the family of the Duchess of Cambridge – her parents Carole, 66, and Michael Middleton, 72, and siblings Pippa, 37, and James, 34 – who Levin believes deserve much of the credit for William’s success by giving him “a real sense of normality amid any chaos”.
“Children of broken homes, especially if the parental break-up was unpleasant, often don’t know how a good relationship works,” Levin told British newspaper The Sun, referencing Diana’s relationship with Prince Charles, 72 – which became so turbulent their divorce was dubbed “The War of the Waleses”. Levin explains, “William learned through the Middletons how a loving and supportive family works. It has been the bedrock of making Kate loving, calm and confident. Harry hasn’t had that parental opportunity.”
While the Sussexes are close with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, 64, who lives 90 minutes away from their $20 million mansion in Montecito, California, the former Suits star is estranged from the rest of her family. Meghan has no relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, 76, after he staged a photo shoot with paparazzi in the lead-up to her May 2018 Windsor wedding, then gave a personal letter from her to the Daily Mail to publish. She’s also estranged from her half-siblings Samantha and Thomas Markle Jnr. Relationships within Meghan’s family are so bad that before they were married, Harry said in a BBC interview the Windsors were the “family that, I suppose, she’s never had”.
“Both he and Meghan come from very damaged backgrounds and must carry with them some of the negativity,” Levin stated. “It must be hard for them to help each other and lack experience in how stable, strong, understanding relationships work,” she added.
• By Kylie Walters
“Harry is very much on the outside” –SOURCE