Fans of the British royal family hoping for Prince William and Prince Harry to reconcile are in for a rude awakening. After hopes may have risen among fans after seeing William and Harry’s united front after Queen Elizabeth’s death, it was all reportedly not reflective of true feelings between the brothers. As Katie Nicholl, author of The New Royals – Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown, explained during her appearance on Dan Wootton Tonight, the Prince of Wales cannot forgive his brother Harry for the “actions he has committed in recent years.”
“William simply can’t forgive [Harry], not just for his behavior and what he’s done and how he’s done it, but look at how much now rests on William,” Nicholl said. “He always thought Harry would be his wingman, now he’s doing it on his own. Thank goodness he’s got Kate by his side.” When Harry and Meghan revealed they would be moving away, the author claimed that William and Kate Middleton felt “relief” that the “drama was gone.”
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Nicholl also wrote that it is unclear whether Charles will prevent grandchildren Archie and Lilibet from becoming princes and princesses now that the Sussexes are no longer working royals, according to a source close to the king. “It depends a lot on what happens in the coming months, particularly with Harry’s book and their TV show,” the source said in an extract of the book published by Vanity Fair.
The excerpt revealed that the queen made it clear that if Harry and Meghan left, they would not benefit from being royal. Nicholl said the queen was “hurt and exhausted” by the Sussexes’ decision. According to a friend, the monarch privately expressed her exhaustion over the decision. “[The Queen] was very hurt and told me, ‘I don’t know, I don’t care, and I don’t want to think about it anymore,’” a source close to the late monarch told Nicholl, which was cited in the Vanity Fair book extract.
As the source added, Harry and Meghan’s move was more of a regret for the queen since she couldn’t spend as much time with her great-grandchildren. In Nicholls’ excerpt, she wrote that “there is still coolness between William and Harry—and on William’s part, a serious lack of trust.” Upon asking a senior aide close to William and Harry for decades about the brothers’ falling out and two competing courts, of the Sussexes and Waleses, he answered her: “Actually, the more you see about how the Sussexes are approaching these things, it is much more Californian, much closer aligned to activism and celebrity than it is to royalty.”
“The point about royalty is it’s the only institution that links together civic society, the philanthropic world, and establishment.” He added, “The Sussexes know they’re not able to compare to them. The key point is that they’re not even trying. What they are doing is making a difference in their politico-philanthropic world, and that’s great.”
