Almost six years after Prince Harry’s first comments about his supposed spat with Prince William, there are still no signs of the brothers reconciling.
The pair have not been seen in public together since their uncle Lord Robert Fellowes’ funeral in August 2024 and are thought to be estranged.
Harry made some unprecedented comments about William during an interview in 2019 in a documentary that was meant to focus on his and Meghan’s ten–day tour of southern Africa.
When asked about the brotherly rift, the Duke of Sussex said they were on ‘different paths’, and confessed they have ‘good and bad days’.
The rare admission sent royal fans into a spin as many speculated Harry and William’s feud was showing no signs of resolving.
Speaking in a candid interview with ITV‘s Tom Bradby, the now–41–year–old was asked point–blank about the reported conflict.
‘There’s been a lot of news in the press about rifts with your brother,’ the presenter said in the October 2019 documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, which followed the couple on their tour. ‘How much of that is true?’
Harry initially laughed at the question, but did not hesitate to answer, claiming the rumours were ‘created out of nothing’.
Prince Harry made unprecedented comments about his brother in an interview in 2019 sending royal fans and commentators into a spin (the pair pictured July 2018)
‘Part of this role, part of this job, this family, being under the pressure which it’s under – inevitably, stuff happens. But we are brothers. We will always be brothers,’ he said.
‘We’re certainly on different paths at the moment, but I’ll always be there for him, and as I know, he’ll always be there for me.
‘The majority of this stuff is created out of nothing, but as brothers, you know, you have good days, you have bad days.’
Royal author Tina Brown discussed Harry’s remarks in her book, The Palace Papers, saying they ‘detonated headlines about an open breach between the brothers’.
She claimed ITV producers ‘fully expected’ the documentary to be an ‘uneventful royal tag–along’ with a number of ‘great visual moments’ from a FaceTime with Nelson Mandela’s widow to the new parents’ son Archie meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
‘But, to the astonishment of the Sussexes’ communications team and the show’s producers, Harry and Meghan hijacked their own humanitarian message during their end–of–tour interview with Bradby by talking about how bummed out they were in their private lives,’ the writer penned.
‘For Harry, it was another jeremiad about their persecution by the media.’
Earlier in 2019, reports started swirling about Harry and William’s fall-out, apparently over his relationship with Meghan.
Royal author Tina Brown discussed Harry’s remarks in her book, The Palace Papers, saying they ‘detonated headlines about an open breach between the brothers’
Harry made some unprecedented comments about William in an interview in 2019 in a documentary that was meant to focus on his and Meghan’s ten–day tour of southern Africa
Tensions grew when Harry and Meghan made the decision to give up their royal duties and move to the US.
In 2020, Harry went to Sandringham, the royal estate in Norfolk, to discuss his and Meghan’s royal roles.
He claimed in his Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan that William screamed and shouted at him during the summit.
When Harry released Spare in January 2023, it became apparent to royal fans that his rivalry with William seemed to have always been there.
In the book, he called William his ‘archnemesis’ and said the pair had always ‘competed’.
He also revealed they had a physical altercation that resulted in Harry being cut by a dog bowl.
Since the Sussexes’ move to the US, Harry and William have only appeared together a handful of times.
Most recently, last August, they both attended Fellowes’ funeral, but they did not appear to speak or interact with each other.
Since the Sussexes’ move to the US in 2020, Harry and William have only appeared together a handful of times. They put on a rare united front in 2022 during a procession following Queen Elizabeth’s death
In May 2023, they watched on as their father, King Charles III, was crowned, but Harry did not stand alongside his family during the post–ceremony balcony appearance.
The September prior, they put on a rare united front during a procession following their grandmother’s death.
The brothers seemingly put their differences aside to grieve the late Queen, with William even showing grace at the funeral when he let Harry and Meghan take their seats at Windsor Castle before him and Kate.
Grant Harrold, who worked at King Charles’s personal home, Highgrove, between 2004 and 2011, spoke of a rekindling of the brothers’ relationship as part of a new documentary for 60 Minutes Australia.
He said the boys were a ‘team’ in childhood and always played ‘practical jokes’ on each other.
Mr Harrold believes that the rift between the future King and the ‘spare’ will not last for ever.
But royal author Tom Bower has said he felt that a reconciliation between Harry and his family was ‘totally unrealistic’.
He said: ‘There is zero chance of reconciliation because there is irreconcilable anger on the part of William and Kate.’
