The royal family suffered the biggest rift within the institution when Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle decided to step down from their roles as senior royals. As the relationship between Harry and his older brother, Prince William — who is next in line to sit on the British throne— soured, the latter has reportedly started planning what his reign would look like in the near future.
According to The Express , a source provided information about what could possibly happen once Prince William ascended the throne after their father, King Charles III . “William is already planning for when he becomes King, and he doesn’t see a future for the Sussexes in the Royal Family. The feeling is that allowing the Sussexes back into the fold is a bad move and they should be resigned to the fringes indefinitely,” the insider explained. The brothers have been embroiled in a bitter feud for several years and it only got worse when Prince Harry published his memoir.
In his tell-all book titled Spare , Harry claimed that his older brother physically attacked him while they had a heated argument at Kensington Palace, among other revealing secrets. However, according to Cosmopolitan , the reports of friction between Harry and William first made the headlines in November 2018 when veteran royal reporter Katie Nicholl explicitly stated to sources that the two brothers are not getting along lately.
As per Nicholl, the first falling out between the brothers occurred around Christmas of 2018 when Harry allegedly accused William of “not doing enough to include Meghan in the royal family.” “Harry felt William wasn’t rolling out the red carpet for Meghan and told him so. They had a bit of a fallout, which was only resolved when Charles stepped in and asked William to make an effort. That’s when the Cambridges invited the Sussexes to spend Christmas with them,” Nicholl’s source told the outlet.
As of 2024, Harry has apparently told his close friends that he is willing to take on some official duties after his father was diagnosed with cancer. However, according to The Mirror , an insider revealed that there is no chance that William would let Harry back in. “Whatever has been discussed between William and the King is private, but it is absolutely and categorically clear that [William] would not allow Harry to return…He thought it was a bad idea at the time and he’s even more clear now.”
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The Times reported that one of Harry’s close friends, Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, earlier this year, married Olivia Henson and both Harry and William were invited to the wedding . However, only one of them showed up. “A civilised understanding was reached between the Duke and Harry over the phone which ultimately led to the royal not attending the nuptials. After all, William was called to be an usher at the wedding, which would have been beyond awkward if he was obliged to show Harry to his pew,” a source told the outlet at the time.
This article originally appeared 2 months ago.