Prince William Will Not Invite Prince Harry to His Coronation, Royal Author Claims

Prince William has no intention of inviting Prince Harry to his future coronation, according to a new royal book that claims the rift between the brothers has now hardened into something close to permanent.

Prince William and Prince Harry have been under intense strain since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from royal duties in 2020, followed by a stream of interviews, the Netflix series Harry & Meghan and Harry's memoir Spare. Repeated calls for reconciliation have mostly come from commentators rather than the main players themselves, and there has been little public sign of meaningful contact between the brothers beyond essential family events.

Tom Bower, whose new biography 'Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family' centres on the continuing fallout inside the House of Windsor. Bower writes that a guest at King Charles III's Coronation reception last year was told Prince William had already resolved that his younger brother would not be at his own crowning ceremony, whenever that might be.

According to the book, the decision was supposedly taken on the very afternoon of King Charles's Coronation, held at Westminster Abbey in May 2023. Harry did attend that service, but without Meghan, Archie or Lilibet, and left the UK swiftly afterwards. Bower says this was the point at which William privately drew a line over any future ceremonial role for his brother.

Neither Kensington Palace nor representatives of Prince Harry have commented on the specific allegation. Without corroboration from either side, the account remains unverified and should be treated with caution, though it fits a broader pattern of briefings that portray Prince William as increasingly resolute about protecting the monarchy's image from further internal drama.

The book's appearance coincides with another set of claims about how deep the distrust around Harry and Meghan ran inside the late Queen's circle.

Prince William at Centre of New Claims Over Queen's Fears

In a separate biography, 'Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History,' royal writer Hugo Vickers says the Sussexes' behaviour left the late Queen anxious that her own grandson might secretly record her or leak their private conversations. Vickers argues that the turmoil caused by Harry and Meghan 'cannot be overestimated' in the final years of her reign.

Vickers alleges that Queen Elizabeth sometimes asked a lady-in-waiting to sit in on telephone calls with Harry, not to offer advice but as a kind of witness. He quotes her as having felt that 'trust had been broken' and suggests she worried about photographs being taken or devices being hidden during any meeting. The implication is that even the monarch, usually described as instinctively loyal to her family, no longer felt entirely safe around them.

Again, there is no independent documentation of these conversations and Buckingham Palace has not endorsed the account. Still, Vickers is a seasoned royal biographer, and his portrayal of a Queen quietly instituting her own safeguards will be seized on by those who argue that Prince William's tougher approach to his brother is less a personal vendetta and more a continuation of that wary pragmatism.

What emerges, taken together, is a picture of a family where proximity to the throne now comes with a stricter test of loyalty. Prince William, who has increasingly stepped in for his father during King Charles's cancer treatment, is framed in both books as the figure determined to set boundaries, even with close relatives.

Prince William Balances Public Duty With Private Distance

In public, Prince William continues to project unity around the institution rather than the extended family. He and Princess Catherine briefly interrupted their Easter break to send a message of support to the Women's Six Nations Championship, posting on X to wish 'all the players and support staff the best of luck'. It was a small gesture, but typical of how the Waleses now operate online: carefully controlled, firmly focused on duty, and with no hint of personal drama.

Behind the scenes, if Bower and Vickers are to be believed, the mood is far frostier. The suggestion that William could contemplate excluding his only brother from a future coronation is stark, even by recent Windsor standards. Coronations are not just grand state occasions; they are meant to be moments when the royal family presents itself, however imperfectly, as a united front.

Excluding Harry would not be a neutral act. It would formalise the split and send an unmistakable signal about how far the Sussexes have drifted from the core of the monarchy. Yet one senses that for Prince William, the calculation may now be that an uneasy reunion on camera carries more risk to the Crown's authority than a conspicuous empty seat.

Nothing about a future coronation guest list can be confirmed at this stage, and both books are, by definition, interpretations of private conversations that only a handful of people truly witnessed. Until the principals speak openly and they show no appetite for doing so claims of who will or will not be invited must be taken with a grain of salt.

What is clear for now is that Prince William has moved into a phase of his life where sentiment is less visible, and the preservation of the monarchy's credibility appears to override almost everything else, including brotherhood.