Experts believe Prince William and Harry’s late mother had the power to bring her boys back together by intervening – but understanding both sides.
There was a time when Prince William and Prince Harry were as close as two brothers can be. But following the Sussexes’s decision to quit royal life – and launch a number of very public attacks on the monarchy – their relationship lies in tatters.
Those close to William insist there is no way back for Harry, noting that the future King has lost all trust in his brother. But according to one royal expert, there was one person who would have been able to heal the brothers’ rift – their late mother, Princess Diana.
The BBC’s former royal correspondent Jennie Bond told OK: “I believe Diana would have sorted things out between the boys long ago. She would have understood both sides, having rebelled against the system herself.
“I think she would have acted as a go-between and knocked William and Harry’s heads together to make them see sense. Perhaps, with his mother to guide and support him, Harry would never have felt the need to speak out on TV and in his book. Her most fervent wish was for her two boys to be best friends for life, and support one another other through their strange destiny. She would have been heartbroken to see how bad things are between them now.”
It comes after Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton told The Mirror’s podcast, Pod Save the Queen , that William and Harry’s mother would be “mortified” by what has happened between them.
“There is no question about it, she’d be mortified that William and Harry have got themselves into this emotional tangle,” he said. “She always said to me on numerous occasions that Harry was William’s wing man, that he was the second boy born into the Royal Family.
“She even looked at the past and pointed out that most members of the Royal Family just have a girl and a boy like Princess Margaret or two girls like Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.
“She really felt that Harry was there to support William in a very lonely job. She would find it very difficult that they are not communicating, at least not in public.”
Harry and Meghan shocked the world in January 2020 when they announced they were stepping back from royal life, jetting off for a fresh start in California. But their shocking public criticisms of the monarchy have proved to be the final straw for Prince William, who has reportedly shut down the idea of a possible reconciliation.
It has also left a bitter taste in the mouths of their former mutual friends, who have described the couple as ‘outrageously disloyal’.
A close friend of Harry’s previously told The Times: “I can’t believe he’d stoop so low. It’s outrageously disloyal. Oprah, Netflix and then the book? Three strikes and you’re out.” Another source, who is friends with both William and Harry, said: “Harry and Meghan could have left with dignity and decency and not trashed the institution. The conclusion is they’ve made money from trashing his family.”