Fixing the longtime, ongoing royal rift between Prince William and Prince Harry is not going to be an easy feat. But, then again, that was probably already obvious from, you know, the literal *years* it’s been going on already and the fact that huge moments like unveiling a statue in honor of their late mother, Princess Diana, the birth of Harry’s daughter, Lilibet, and the deaths of their beloved grandparents, Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II, have all seemingly failed to bring them back to their former levels of brotherly love.
According to Katie Nicholl, royal expert and author of the new book The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown, William, in particular, is not ready to heal from some of the hurt of the past few years.
“[When Harry stepped back from his royal duties], it was very difficult for William, and I think that’s partly why this rift hasn’t been resolved, because, you know, William can’t completely forgive Harry for what he’s done,” Nicholl recently told Us Weekly, adding that Harry and his wife Meghan Markle’s actions haven’t just impacted Will, but his wife, Kate Middleton, and their three children, George, 9, Charlotte, 7, and Louis, 4.
“It had a huge impact on him, on [Princess] Catherine, on their young family. It put them in that prime sort of center. It moved them center stage far sooner than they would otherwise have been,” she added. “I think William had always expected that he would have the support of his brother.
And I think it wasn’t just that Harry had chosen to leave and to stand down. I think a lot of it was how he chose to do that and what William saw as a great disrespect to the institution and to his, to his family, to his grandmother.”
Nicholl says there is still hope that the brothers will put their differences behind them…eventually, at least.
“It is Charles’ intention to heal this family rift, to try and to try and work things out because he knows that this will hang over his reign. There cannot be this discord at the heart of the royal family,” she explained.
She acknowledged that the Queen’s funeral was “an opportunity for a thawing” of the cold relationships between Harry and the rest of the royals and pointed to the Fab Four’s walkabout in Windsor as a step in the right direction, but added that “any suggestion that there’s been a long term and meaningful reconciliation would be wide of the mark. I think there’s a way to go.
“From Cosmopolitan US