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While rumors about tensions in the royal family between Prince William and Prince Harry have swirled as far back as 2018, with reports claiming Harry was disappointed that William didn’t do more to welcome his wife, Meghan Markle, into the family. It wasn’t until 2019 that a rift was formally confirmed—when the Duke of Sussex infamously confessed that they are “on different paths.”
While speaking in an ITV documentary about his tour of Africa with the Duchess, Prince Harry remarked, “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.
“We don’t see each other as much as we used to because we’re so busy, but I love him dearly. The majority of this stuff is created out of nothing, but as brothers, you know, you have good days, you have bad days.”
However, mere months later, Harry and Meghan announced they’d be “stepping back” from their senior working royal roles and shortly moved to California, to start afresh. What followed was a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey (in which the Royal Family were very much criticized for failing to prevent negative tabloid coverage of Meghan, amongst other things) and Harry’s memoir, Spare, in which he recounts a physical altercation with William.
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Now, it seems like the future King has extended an olive branch to his brother—which has somewhat gone under the radar.
When chatting to Eugene Levy in an episode of the actor’s travel series, The Reluctant Traveller, Prince William shared that change will absolutely be afoot when he becomes monarch.
“Change for good, and I embrace that and I enjoy that change. I don’t fear it, that’s the bit that excites me – the idea of being able to bring some change,” he said. “I want to create a world in which my son is proud of what we do, in a world and a job that actually does impact people’s lives for the better.”
The royal then added, “That is caveated with, I hope we don’t go back to some of the practices in the past that Harry and I grew up in. And I’ll do everything I can to make sure we don’t regress in that situation.”
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Given that this mention marks the first time in four years that William has discussed his brother in public since their big falling out, it’s left royal fans hoping that this could be the beginning of a reconciliation between the pair.
The previous time that William mentioned Harry was back in 2021, after the Oprah interview fall out—when asked by a reporter if he’d spoken to his brother, William replied, “I haven’t spoken to him yet, but I will do.”
Is that the sound of some defrosting tensions, we hear?