Future king William is said to have predicted major issues with his younger brother when the Sussexes made the decision to quit royal life, some 20 months after they tied the knot
The start of 2026 could signal a fresh start for Prince Harry. Should the review of his taxpayer-funded security work in his favour, the duke could significantly increase his visits back to the UK, paving the way for more time with his father King Charles, and perhaps a full reunion.
But the same can’t be said for his relationship with Prince William. The two brothers have reportedly not spoken since the death of the late Queen, and future king William is said to have no desire to reconcile with Harry.
The siblings used to be incredibly close. But Harry’s repeated attacks on the royal family have seen him cut off by his older brother – who reportedly predicted major issues right back when the Sussexes’ decided to quit royal life.
READ MORE: King Charles ‘railroaded’ into Prince Harry reunion and remains ‘extremely wary’READ MORE: Harry and Meghan’s ‘confused’ brand led to ‘troubled’ relationship with key aidesREAD MORE: Harry and Meghan’s staff keep quitting – but it isn’t just ‘bad hires’, says expert
Writing in her book Palace Papers, royal expert Tina Brown noted that while Harry’s union with Meghan was initially seen as a ‘victory over entrenched attitudes towards race and class’, the hope for a ‘harmoniously integrated’ family evaporated 18 months later. And according to the author, William had a premonition of how bad things were going to get.
As a result, the then-Duke of Cambridge reportedly asked a trusted retired Palace aide to ‘come back for a bit’ to help contain the fallout from the split, later styled ‘Megxit’. “In November 19, a Palace old hand, now retired, spoke to the Duke of Cambridge at a charity function in London,” Ms Brown wrote in her Sunday Times bestseller, released in April 2022. “William apparently said to him with a worried air, ‘We may need you to come back for a bit. I’m afraid the wheels are going to fall off with Harry.'”
The author also states that Harry and Meghan made the mistake of believing they had it all worked out when it came to quitting royal life. “Like any divorce, much of the conflict came down to money and, as usual in this saga, there were hot temperaments and cold misunderstandings,” Ms Brown wrote. Most notably, the ‘half-in, half-out’ royal role that they envisioned ‘threw up multiple conflicts of interest’ that were apparently evident to everybody except them.
One major issue was the tricky task of ‘delineating’ commercial activities and royal duties. “If, say, the high-visibility couple tacked a few days of shooting a paid Netflix documentary onto the back of a Foreign Office-funded Commonwealth tour, there would be an uproar,” Ms Brown noted.
Another point of contention was whether the Sussexes and their children should still receive taxpayer-funded police protection. These issues all boiled down to a single dilemma, the author suggested. “Whether the Sussexes were celebrity royals or royal celebrities, two very different states of being,” she wrote. “A royal is representing Crown and country. A celebrity is representing himself or herself…The summer of 2019 confirmed to the media that the Sussexes had made the decisive and deadly pivot to the meretricious side of the equation.”
It follows reports that Harry is confident he has finally won his fight to have his automatic armed police protection restored when he visits the UK. A ruling, reportedly thought to be in the Duke of Sussex’s favour, is set to be announced in the coming weeks after a lengthy battle to have his security while in the UK restored.
In May, Harry lost his case at the Court of Appeal against the Home Office to have his automatic police protection restored after his security arrangements changed when he and wife Meghan quit their royal roles – and the UK.
Source: Mirror
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