It doesn’t matter if King Charles III is healing his relationship with Prince Harry; Prince William still isn’t going to budge in his feud.
According to The Royalist Substack, the Prince of Wales has a firm “red line” with his younger brother, and he’s not interested in compromising. William reportedly believes that “no royal should grant Harry the legitimacy of a meeting or photograph after Spare and Netflix.” His stance is allegedly “guided not just by personal grievance but by public opinion” — so it sounds like he’s reading a lot of what the media publishes about the royal family.
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While William sees the “danger” in letting Harry back in, Charles is more interested in “embodying forgiveness,” which might come as a part of his cancer battle. Still, William’s pals have been delivering this message strongly over the last month, and it shows how divided the palace is at this point.
King Charles, Prince Harry
Samir Hussein/WireImage via Getty Images
“William was right about Andrew, and he is right about Harry. Charles is weak. William is anything but weak,” said a royal source to The Daily Beast earlier this month. With Charles and William not seeing eye-to-eye on how to lead the royal family, it appears to be chaos behind the scenes.
“William is back at the point where if you mention Prince Harry in his presence, he would throw you out of the room,” a palace insider explained to the Daily Mail in mid-September. “He’s doubling down.” With Prince Harry hoping to come back to the U.K. once a quarter, it’s setting the feuding brothers up for another showdown, even if it appears to be one-sided now.
The Prince of Wales’ failure to soften his view about mending the rift with Harry has some people questioning his leadership skills. Royal expert Duncan Larcombe told The Daily Beast in June 2022, “If William wants to be a future king, a great leader giving inspiring addresses about the environment to two billion people, then the public are within their rights to expect him to be able to sort out a frankly pretty minor dispute with his brother.”
With William and Charles failing to align on the Harry situation, it only shines a light on what is really happening behind palace walls. “All this unfolds against the backdrop of Charles’ illness. Since he disclosed his cancer, insiders have quietly accepted that William’s reign has already begun in all but name,” Tom Sykes of The Royalist Substack wrote. “That makes every fracture more dangerous. William’s authority grows daily, while Charles’ ebbs away.”
Click here to see a complete timeline of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s feud with the royal family.
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