The relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry is now so bad that the brothers haven’t spoken since the late Queen Elizabeth’s funeral almost two years ago, and William and Kate did not even respond to Harry and Meghan when they sent a message of sympathy and well-wishes to Kate following her cancer diagnosis.
The timing of the revelations will be particularly unwelcome to Harry and Meghan, who are currently on a trip to Colombia, and would prefer the focus to be on their humanitarian efforts there, rather than the family feud they did so much to publicize.
According to a wide-ranging, bombshell report in British paper The Sunday Times by royal correspondent Roya Nikkhah, William did not share Kate’s cancer diagnosis in advance of her global video address with his brother.
The sad revelations about the state of his relationship with other members of the British royal family are likely to cast a pall on the quasi-royal trip he and Meghan Markle are currently on in Colombia.
Colombia Vice Presidency/Reuters
Harry and Meghan’s office issued a public statement after Kate revealed her diagnosis and their camp let it be known they had made contact privately with William and Kate. Shockingly, Nikkhah says, “That contact was unreciprocated.”
It is a damning indictment of the disastrous collapse of the relationship between the brothers.
The new detail of the ignored get well message, if it is seen as coming from Harry’s camp and is understood as an attempt to paint his brother as cruel, has the potential to rebound, and revive irritation that arose when Harry was perceived in some quarters to be exploiting his father’s health crisis for his own ends when he said in a GMA television interview that his father’s cancer could help rebuild broken familial bonds.
Since the brothers spent time together at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, they have not exchanged a word.
Justin Setterfield/Pool/Reuters
At the time, one friend of Charles and Queen Camilla, responding to Harry’s comments to Will Reeve, told the Daily Beast: “It seems Harry has taken it on himself to use the diagnosis to publicize his own agenda. If it wasn’t so sickening it would be funny. What really would have helped the family come together would have been if Harry had said he wouldn’t be taking questions about his father.”
Nikkhah says that the two brothers have not spoken since the late queen’s funeral when, by Harry’s own admission in his memoir, they only exchanged a few words. The brothers appeared together with their wives to greet crowds of mourners at Windsor Castle on Sept. 10. Kate reportedly later told friends it was one of the “hardest things” she had ever done.
The article paints a picture of Harry as isolated in a “gilded exile” and obsessed with past injustices.
One source, described as one of Harry’s “oldest friends” who says they still get “the odd WhatsApp from him” is quoted as saying, “He’s an angry boy. Things haven’t turned out how he wanted. I think he misses being over here [in Britain] desperately and wants to be admired more. Anyone who knows him feels he’d rather be top of the pops here with everyone loving him, as they do with William and Kate.”
Another source says that Harry began to drop his friend group after he began living with Meghan, saying: “It was sad to see. He used to have lots of friends coming round to see him, army mates, polo friends, then they just tailed off. Then it was the yoga guru, the wellbeing guru, everyone saying we must eat less meat and fly less. We were all scratching our heads as they were taking private jets.”
On the plus side, friends and sources say that Harry is loving fatherhood and wants to focus on his humanitarian work.
One friend says: “He sees he has a longer runway to add value. He wants to be a humanitarian and he should, because he’s good at that. He’s giving himself longer to see what the life he’s set up and next 10 years-plus look like. Harry and Meghan should perhaps keep their heads down after a very noisy period and put the right plans in place for the future. There needs to be a bit of substance there.”
