Prince William, Harry's Relationship: Key Moment When Their Relationship Fell Apart Remains Unknown

Prince William and Prince Harry were once regarded as exceptionally close. During Princess Diana's lifetime, the brothers appeared inseparable, frequently photographed together as they travelled the world with their parents. Yet behind the public image, the pressures on both brothers were considerable and would ultimately prove significant.

Following Princess Diana's death in 1997, attention shifted sharply to the brothers. For much of their childhood, public focus had fallen primarily on their parents rather than on William and Harry themselves. Only after Diana's death did the full weight of scrutiny fall directly on the two boys. William bore the expectation of the future king, while Harry was widely regarded as his strongest support. It was during the years that followed that the foundations of their relationship, and eventually the fractures within it, began to take shape.

Prince William's Reported View of Harry

According to royal editor Russell Myers' new book, the relationship between the brothers deteriorated in the period leading up to Harry's marriage to Meghan Markle in 2018. Myers claims that William came to view his younger brother as 'paranoid, angry, obsessive, and firmly rooted in the past.'

Royal insiders have previously suggested that Harry had a particularly difficult time processing the trauma of losing his mother at the age of 12. His interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which he and Markle spoke candidly about life within the royal family, was said to have deeply unsettled William, marking the first time a senior royal had aired such grievances so publicly.

Prince William, Kate Middleton's Concerns

Myers also writes that William himself could not identify the precise moment his relationship with Harry broke down. Only that, at some point, he felt he had lost his brother.

The book further claims that William and the Princess of Wales had growing concerns about their working relationship with Harry and Markle in the period before the Sussexes announced their departure from royal duties. Despite always presenting a united front in public, tensions had apparently been building behind the scenes. 'In one camp you had the people who cared, wanted those working in the household to enjoy themselves while working there. And on the other side it was something different every day. Nothing was ever good enough, there were constant complaints. It was exhausting,' a source told Myers.

The quote emphasises what Myers presents as a broader tension within the royal household during that period—one that extended beyond the brothers' personal relationship and into the day-to-day working environment shared by both couples.

Treating the Claims With Caution

Several royal observers have noted that Myers did not speak directly with William, the Princess of Wales, Harry or Markle in the course of writing the book. The claims, therefore, rest on third-party sources, and their reliability cannot be independently verified.

William and the Princess of Wales have not publicly addressed the state of their relationship with the Sussexes, consistent with their longstanding reluctance to discuss private matters publicly. Harry and Markle have spoken about the Waleses previously, though neither has done so in recent months.