Prince William and Prince Harry’s feud is well-known by now. The yearslong suspicions of their brotherhood not being picture-perfect are being confirmed in Harry and Meghan Markle’s many unflattering stories about the future king and queen — stories they started sharing with the world when they bid farewell to their royal duties in 2020. The announcement is colloquially known as “Megxit,” a play on “Brexit” and “Meghan.” However, the rocky relationship between Princess Diana’s sons started long before, and many clues had been right before our very eyes.
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Their current apparent animosity is evidenced in how they avoided each other at King Charles’ coronation (which Harry attended on his own, without Meghan) and at the funeral of Diana’s sister’s husband, Robert Fellowes. The brothers are not even considering contact for more private — but no less important — events. Harry and Meghan have not been invited to the royal family’s Christmas getaway in 2024 yet again, have been excluded from balcony pictures, and an anonymous friend of Harry’s told People their calls regarding King Charles’ health, given he is dealing with cancer, are going unanswered. On the other hand, Harry and Meghan have invited Prince William, Kate Middleton, King Charles, and Queen Camilla to their daughter Lilibet’s christening, but none of them attended. These rifts, however, are the outcome of a lifelong feud that had long been simmering.
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When they had each other’s backs
Undoubtedly, one of the most painful things that can happen to a kid is losing their mother. The death of Princess Diana, the universally cherished global humanitarian, was a devastating blow for Prince William, Prince of Wales, and Harry, 15 and 12 at the time, respectively. The former even said that this brought them closer together. “We are uniquely bonded because of what we’ve been through,” William said in a 2017 video on X (formerly Twitter) where he, Princess Kate, and Harry have a conversation on mental health.
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For instance, in “Spare,” Harry shared that William was his strength when they publicly walked together behind Diana’s casket at her funeral. The princess’s brother, Charles, had initially said it would be “barbaric” to make the boys do so. When Prince Phillip suggested that it should only be William who would do the walk if Harry was too young, Harry insisted on going with him. “I didn’t want Willy to undergo an ordeal like that without me,” he wrote. “Had the roles been reversed, he’d never have wanted me — indeed, allowed me — to go it alone. … I remember keeping a fraction of Willy always in the corner of my vision and drawing loads of strength from that.”
However, William confessed in the 2017 video that he and Harry had not talked much about Diana with each other, hinting that there already were some barriers between them. And even for their mother, they can’t look each other in the eyes today. At the 2024 Diana Awards, Harry appeared in an interactive video, and the soon-to-be-king only wrote letters to the winners. Could seeing his brother’s face, even just in a video, be too much for him?
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Beloved brother and archnemesis
One could suppose their childhood had only been full of fraternal love after reading how Prince Harry saw Prince William, Prince of Wales, as his strength during the hardest moment in their lives. But he actually already resented his older brother. “I was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy,” he wrote in “Spare”, indicating that since early in life, it was clear he was the “shadow, the support, the Plan B” to take the throne. The runaway prince did not clarify if William himself had ever called him these names, but the identity of being a spare to the heir had been reinforced to him throughout his childhood.
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And yet, Harry still wanted to be friends with his older brother. When the younger prince started attending the elite boarding school Eton at 13, just a year after their mother’s death, he followed William to hang out with him. The Prince of Wales, however, made it clear that he was on his own at school. “You don’t know me, Harold, and I don’t know you,” Harry claims William told him, despite his little brother not knowing anyone else at school. “That hurt at the time,” wrote Harry, who then describes the future king as his “beloved brother” and “archnemesis.”
Harry wished William could have been his rock
The princes kept growing apart after Eton. Prince Harry’s mental health issues was showing more symptoms in his 20s, such as full-blown panic attacks, and the reactions of Prince William, Prince of Wales, were not what his brother expected from him. For instance, when Harry had a panic attack mid-speech during a public engagement due to the overwhelming anxiety he was experiencing, he waited for his brother’s support, but he only received laughs. “Harold! Look at you! You’re drenched!” Harry recalled William saying (via “Spare”).
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The Duke of Sussex has been open about his mental health issues. On Bryony Gordon’s podcast “Mad World,” he revealed how much he struggled with aggression, anxiety, and being “very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions.” After his mother’s death, he said he experienced post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI), which is why he apparently felt betrayed by his brother, calling his laughing reaction “insensitive.” Decades of mental health issues and a lack of support from his brother ultimately made Harry and Meghan step back from royal duties. Meghan Markle also told Oprah that she felt suicidal during her pregnancy, and the royal institution did not give her the help she needed.
It seems, then, that Harry saw his wife experiencing the same dismissiveness about her mental health and concluded that his family would never support him — not years ago with William, and not when Meghan was pregnant. “I need to do this for my family,” the Duke of Sussex told Oprah on Entertainment Tonight. “This is not a surprise to anybody, it’s really sad that it’s got to this point,” he said. “But I’ve got to do something for my own mental health, my wife’s, and for Archie’s as well.
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Meghan is reportedly not William’s cup of tea
The most intense altercation between Harry and Prince William, Prince of Wales, was an explosive physical attack. In 2019, tensions were escalating within the royal family over Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle and their roles within the institution. It was in the midst of this when the Duke of Sussex claimed he and his brother were having a conversation about Meghan when William called her “rude”, “abrasive” and “difficult”. The argument escalated until William reportedly physically attacked him. “It all happened so fast,” Harry wrote in “Spare.” “So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”
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The Duke of Sussex apparently believed William and Kate were not crazy about Meghan long before that incident, though. Contrary to the bride and groom’s insistence, the future king and queen sat far from them at their wedding, Harry wrote in “Spare”. Even in terms of his own appearance for the ceremony, Harry claims William gave him orders on what to do with his body. The groom-to-be asked the queen if he could keep his beard, as he felt it was “a shield to [his] anxiety” and it made him feel like “the new Harry”, a request she granted. William, though, was not happy about it. Harry claims he told him to shave it. The Duke of Sussex said on ITV that he supposes William felt like he was in “competition” with him, given that he had been told to shave it off before his wedding with Kate.
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It’s a he said, he said
These claims of a rift between Harry and Prince William, Prince of Wales, are from Harry’s side, though, and it’s his word against his brother’s. So, what’s William’s word? We don’t know, and most likely, we never will. The future king has not publicly responded to his brother’s accusations and unflattering anecdotes about their relationship. “Never complain, never explain,” is a phrase that many consider the royal family’s mantra. According to Business Insider, the practice is most associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth herself, which means that no matter the personal controversies, the royal family must stay silent. As William will soon rise from prince to king, it’s not far-fetched to suppose he follows it too. The Prince of Wales, after all, gives fewer interviews than his father did at his age.
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Let’s say Prince William decides to address the allegations. He risks damaging his reputation and the stability of the monarchy in multiple ways. The feud might escalate because his brother will most likely retort, and, in turn, these stories will become even more viral. Not only that, but Harry’s responses might contain even more details about his accusations. Or maybe he will tell more personal secrets of the family to support his previous claims, snowballing into a PR nightmare for Buckingham Palace. As future king, William is probably also trying to present himself as someone focused on his public duties. However, a friend of William’s told The Daily Beast that he “f****** hates” his brother for openly sharing private family information. “Harry sold his family out to the media for millions of dollars,” the source said. “William can’t forgive that breach of trust.”
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If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
