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Prince William and Prince Harry were once known for sharing an exceptionally close bond, but their relationship has dramatically deteriorated over the years.
The brothers are now largely estranged following Harry’s public criticism of the monarchy and members of his family. Despite the Sussexes’ recent return to Britain, William is reportedly not interested in repairing their relationship.
One issue said to have particularly angered the future King was Harry’s decision to discuss their private disagreements publicly. Among the claims Harry made was that William had “broken a pact” the brothers had previously agreed upon.
Harry made the allegation in the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix documentary series, which was released in December 2022.
Prince Harry’s clаims
Discussing the royal family’s dealings with the media, Harry claimed that information was not only leaked to the press but sometimes deliberately placed with journalists.
He explained: “There’s leaking, but there’s also planting, of sorts.”
Harry continued: “So if the comms team want to be able to remove a negative story about their principal, they will trade and give you something about someone else’s principal. So the offices end up working against each other.”
Harry went on to explain that he and William had once agreed they would not allow the same media practices they believed they had witnessed within their father’s office to become part of their own operation.
He said: “William and I both saw what happened in our dad [King Charles III]’s office, and we made an agreement that we would never let that happen to our office.”
Harry added that he would rather endure negative coverage himself than become involved in exchanging stories with the press. “I would far rather get destroyed in the press than play along with this game or business of trading,” he said. “And to see my brother’s office doing the same thing that we promised the two of us would never, ever do, that was heartbreaking.”
A brokеn pact
Harry returned to the subject of his alleged “pact” with William during an interview with Michael Strahan in January 2023, once again discussing the breakdown of trust between the brothers.
Referring to those working around William, the Duke said: “The people that he employed broke that.”
He continued: “But again, within the family, it’s hard because you are led to believe that if you don’t play the game, that you will be destroyed. And again, I’m the one who’s proving that that is true, right? Chose not to play the game, but they’re trying to destroy me.”
Spare claims
In his revealing memoir Spare, Harry also discussed tensions behind palace walls, claiming that competition existed between the separate royal households. According to the Duke, Charles and Camilla were uncomfortable with the amount of attention William and Catherine received because of the younger couple’s popularity.
Harry alleged: “Pa and Camilla didn’t want Willy and Kate getting loads of publicity. Pa and Camilla didn’t like Willy and Kate drawing attention away from them or their causes. They’d openly scolded Willy about it many times.”
Harry offered an example to illustrate the alleged tensions between the two royal households, recalling an occasion when Catherine had a tennis engagement scheduled for the same day as one of Charles’s public appearances.
He wrote: “Case in point: Pa’s press officer berated Willy’s team when Kate was scheduled to visit a tennis club on the same day Pa was doing an engagement.”
According to Harry, cancelling Catherine’s appearance was no longer an option, prompting Charles’s press officer to issue a specific instruction. “Told that it was too late to cancel the visit, Pa’s press officer warned: Just make sure the Duchess doesn’t hold a tennis racquet in any of the photos!”
Calls with William
Harry also recounted an alleged phone call with William in April 2019, during which his brother reportedly expressed anger over the way stories about his family were being handled by other royal teams.
He wrote: “I gathered that Pa and Camilla’s people had planted a story or stories about him and Kate, and the kids, and he wasn’t going to take it anymore.”
According to Harry, William told him: “‘Give Pa and Camilla an inch,’ he said, ‘they take a mile. They’ve done this to me for the last time.'”
Harry said he understood his brother’s frustration because he believed he and Meghan had experienced similar treatment, adding: “I got it. They’d done the same to me and Meg as well.”
Harry went on to clarify that he did not directly blame Charles and Camilla themselves, instead pointing the finger at a particularly determined member of their communications team.
He wrote: “But it wasn’t them, technically, it was the most gung-ho member of Pa’s comms team, a true believer who’d devised and launched a new campaign of getting good press for Pa and Camilla at the expense of bad press for us.”
According to Harry, this strategy had allegedly been going on for some time and affected both brothers. He continued: “For some time this person had been peddling unflattering stories, fake stories, about the Heir and Spare, to all the papers.”
The ‘bullying’ deniаl
Harry’s long-running battle with the British press has been widely documented and has even led to a number of high-profile legal cases.
His departure from royal life appeared to reach a decisive point after The Times published a report suggesting that William’s alleged “bullying” had contributed to the growing rift between the brothers and Harry’s decision to step away.
A statement, presented at the time as a joint response from William and Harry, was swiftly issued. It read: “Despite clear denials, a false story ran in a U.K. newspaper today speculating about the relationship between The Duke of Sussex and The Duke of Cambridge.”
It continued: “For brothers who care so deeply about the issues surrounding mental health, the use of inflammatory language in this way is offensive and potentially harmful.”
However, Harry later claimed in episode five of Harry & Meghan that he had not been consulted before the statement was released in both brothers’ names.
Recalling what happened, he said: “A story came out saying that part of the reason why Meg and I were leaving was because William had bullied us out. And once I got in the car after the meeting, I was told about a joint statement that had been put out, in my name and my brother’s name, squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family.”
Harry said he was stunned by the situation, particularly because he felt the institution had acted quickly to defend William while failing to offer the same protection to him and Meghan.
“We couldn’t believe it,” he continued. “No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. And I rang M and I told her and she burst into floods of tears because within four hours, they were happy to lie to protect my brother. And yet, for three years, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”
Meghan said the episode became a turning point for her, making her feel that the cycle of negative coverage would never come to an end.
She recalled: “Suddenly, what clicked in my head was, ‘It’s never gonna stop,’ “ before adding: “Every rumour, every negative thing, every lie, everything that I knew wasn’t true and that the palace knew wasn’t true and internally they knew wasn’t true, that was just being allowed to fester.”
Harry said the situation ultimately left them feeling that remaining within the royal system was no longer an option. He added: “So there was no other option at this point. I said, ‘We need to get out of here.'”
Rеconciliation?
Harry and Meghan arrived in Birmingham a little over a week ago as they began a new chapter of their lives in England. The couple have reportedly enrolled Archie and Lilibet in school and are believed to have settled in the Cotswolds.
Their unexpected return is said to have caught the royal family off guard, with King Charles reportedly learning about the move only shortly before it happened.
Unsurprisingly, the Sussexes’ presence in Britain has reignited questions about Harry’s relationship with his relatives. Charles is reportedly pleased that he may now have more opportunities to spend time with his grandchildren, but attention has increasingly turned to whether William might eventually reconnect with his younger brother.
Royal author Robert Jobson, who wrote The Windsor Legacy, believes William and Catherine will avoid becoming drawn into the renewed drama surrounding the Sussexes. Speaking to HELLO!, he said the couple would “rise above all this,” adding: “I don’t think they’re going to be involved in a tit for tat.”
Instead, Jobson expects the future King and Queen to concentrate on their duties and the responsibilities ahead. “William will take the lead, but it’s going to be a team effort. So I think they’re very focused on what’s ahead of them,” he explained.
He added: “I think that they’ll probably think, ‘Well, we’ve been down this road before; It creates a circus and we’re not going to get involved.'”
