Prince Harry has suffered a blow as Prince William has reportedly taken over a group of old friends. Ben Dawes, Thomas van Straubenzee and Edward van Cutsem were seen with the Prince of Wales in Istanbul earlier this week, as Aston Villa won the Europa League. William van Cutsem, Edward’s brother, and Thomas were childhood friends with William and Harry, and have been seen together over the years since.

This includes being godparents to each other’s children, and the lads were ushers at each others’ weddings. It is said that Thomas is thought of as William’s best friend, and it is believed that the future King turned to him for support after Harry and Meghan left the Royal Family in January 2020. Harry, meanwhile, is thought to have leant on Thomas’ brother, Charlie Straubenzee, one of the Duke of Sussex’s wedding ushers, for support. Charlie looks to still be close with Harry.

But there have been no public joint appearances of Harry and Thomas since 2015, while he has been seen with William a lot.

Thomas’ late brother, Henry was Harry’s best friend, it is thought. They met at prep school in Berkshire. But he sadly died in a car crash in 2002 when he was 18.

Harry wrote in his memoir, Spare, that he had become dissilusioned with some members of the van Cutsem family after he and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The wife of one of Hugh Ralph van Cutsem, Rose Astor, appeared to mock the Sussexes on social media.

She wrote: “I am standing back as a senior member of my tax return, because I’d rather drink coffee, see my friends, love my family and do yoga.”

Ms Astor, the Daily Mail reports, did not want to discuss the post when asked about what she had said, saying: “I’m so sorry, I can’t say anything.

“I’m sure you understand. I’m going to be in so much trouble.”

Talking on a podcast with friends James Haskell and Alex Payne, the former rugby player expressed mock surprise that the former, an ex-teammate of his, had not made a fool of himself at the event.

“A lot of other people managed that way better than you – [like] Harry, when he was fun,” Tindall joked.