A tale of two brothers. Prince WilliamAndPrince HarryAlthough they may be royalty, their relationship could remind you of your own sibling.
“Their relationship is incredibly intimate,” Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew MortonThe November 2019 edition of Royals Monthly. “Nobody apart from each other knows exactly — not even their father — what’s gone on in their heads and their hearts for the last 20-odd years. Both experienced the loss of their mother. The only people that they could trust to talk about it in a candid way was each of them.”
William and Harry were both 15 and 12 when Diana died in 1997 in a car crash.
As time went by, however, the brothers began separating from each other. After Harry and his wife divorced, reports of a rift surfaced in 2018. Meghan Markle, opted to move away from Nottingham Cottage in London to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, England, which is further away from William and wife Duchess Kate’s home in Kensington Palace. After the Duchess and Duke of Sussex split their royal charity, the speculation was fuelled in 2019.
“It was always the case that when Prince Harry married, he would have his own household and his own home. It is tradition that marriage gives you your own home and your private secretary. [and] other court functionaries,” Morton said. “They’re very, very close … they’re also very competitive — and always have been.”
Source confirmed that Us Weekly that the princes have “grown apart” over the years.
“William still cares about Harry and is hoping that he’ll open up to him about his current struggles,” the source said in October 2019. “William wants to be there for Harry and hates seeing him in such a bad place.”
One month later, another insider spoke. Use that things are “not great” between William and Harry. “They both need to put in the effort to rebuild their relationship,” the insider said in November 2019. “He doesn’t envy the responsibility that comes with being the future king of England, but William’s the ‘golden boy’ and Harry feels like he has a lot to live up to.”
In January 2020, news broke that Harry and Meghan would be taking a break from their senior royal duties. This decision was made permanent in 2021. In a CBS tell-all interview, the couple spoke out about their decision for the first time on March 2021.
“I was trapped but I didn’t know I was trapped,” Harry said. “Trapped within the system like the rest of the family. My father [Prince Charles]My brother and me are both trapped. They don’t get to leave and I have huge compassion for that.”
In addition to confirming he and William were still struggling, Harry noted that he wasn’t on great terms with his dad.
“There is a lot to work through there,” Harry, who noted his family didn’t denounce the racism directed at Meghan over the years, said. “I feel really let down because he’s been through something similar. He knows what it’s like to feel pain. I will always love him, but there is a lot of hurt that’s happened. It will be a priority for me to heal this relationship. But they only know what they know.”
Scroll down for a timeline showing their relationship.
