Things been relatively quiet regarding the British Royal Family lately, at least regarding the relationship between Princes William and Harry.
Since the infamous Oprah Winfrey interview earlier this year, feelings between the two royal brothers have been frosty – they’ve reportedly only seen each other once since Harry and Meghan Markle spilled their secrets on camera.
Now though, new information about what’s going on behind the scenes has come to light. According to bestselling author Christopher Andersen – who’s written a book about the royal brothers – William hasn’t been returning Harry’s phone calls for months.
Why? Well, there’s one reason.
In the wake of the Oprah Winfrey interview, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put themselves in a challenging situation within the British Royal Family. With that said, it was obviously necessary for them to speak out on what had happened.
William & Harry – relationship
During the interview, Harry made several claims about his family, including one where he insisted his brother is trapped.
“The answer to your question is no, [I wouldn’t have left the Royal family],” Harry told Oprah.
“I wouldn’t have been able to because I myself was trapped, I didn’t see a way out. I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped. But the moment that I met Meg, and our worlds collided in the most amazing of ways, and then [I began] to see how trapped within the system, like, the rest of my family are.
“My father and my brother, they are trapped,” Harry added. “They don’t get to leave, and I have huge compassion for that.”
Moreover, Meghan spoke about her mental health, and how she felt terrible during her time in England. She also revealed that she wasn’t helped through her anguish by the Firm.
The relationship between Harry and his older brother William had already become strained before that infamous sit-down, but the interview turned things positively sour.
Both William and his wife Kate Middleton were said to have been outraged by the interview for several reasons. Meghan revealed that Kate had made her cry during her wedding dress rehearsals, a claim that left the latter fuming.
At the same time, Harry was too outspoken for William’s taste – William is rumored to believe his brother chose “fame over family.”
William thought Harry was “too big for his boots”
Yet weeks after the Oprah interview, reports stated that William was willing to give Harry one more chance.
“William thinks Harry chose fame over family,” US Weekly’s Christina Garibaldi said, as quoted by Express.
“A source tells us that ‘William feels that Harry has got too big for his boots since moving to California and that success and Hollywood has gone to his head.’”
In any case, it seems that Harry and Meghan have chosen a whole different lifestyle. Not only have they left the Royal Family and all of its commitments, but they’ve also launched deals with Spotify and Netflix.
As for how they’re viewed by the royals back in the UK, Harry and Meghan had no plans to stop divulging things despite the fallout from the Oprah interview.
The couple went on to appear in several other interviews. On the Armchair Expert podcast, Harry not only spoke candidly about his struggles, but also on his seeing a therapist. He also shared his thoughts on his upbringing.
Harry no longer wanted to be a part of the Firm
Now, Harry did say that he places no blame on his father, but did add that Prince Charles handed down a “cycle” of “genetic pain and suffering.”
“I don’t think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody. But certainly when it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure that I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on basically,” Harry said.
“There’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway, as parents we should be doing the most that we can to try and say ‘you know what that happened to me, I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.’”
Not only that, but Harry revealed how he wanted to leave the Royal Family in his early 20s. Much of that had to do with how he saw his mother, Princess Diana, being treated prior to her death.
“Look what it did to my mum. How am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and a family when I know that it’s going to happen again,” Harry explained. “I don’t want to be part of this.”
Harry added that he began therapy because “it was like the bubble was burst.”
William was “shocked” over Harry’s comments
“I was like, OK, you’re in this position of privilege, stop complaining or stop thinking as though you want something different, make this different. Because you can’t get out, so how are you going to do this differently? How are you going to make your mum proud? How are you going to use this platform to really affect change?” he added.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Harry’s revelations looked to have caused a great deal of problems with his family in the UK. Royal expert Nick Bullen said at the time that Prince William was “shocked by the number of things his brother has said over the last few weeks.”
Bullen told US Magazine that William was likely to want “the relationship repaired” between himself and Harry. However, their brotherly dynamic was “different” from the one between a father and his son.
“I’m sure the Royal Family and the various royal households just want a moment of calm and are saying, ‘Let’s not have any more headlines,’” Bullen said. “‘Let’s just have a period when no one’s speaking.’”
As far as Prince William is concerned, he looked to be done with all the noise regarding Harry and Meghan back in July.
According to The Daily Mail’s royal expert Charlotte Griffiths, William “refused to take any more nonsense” from the couple.
She went as far as to claim that a “new picture” was emerging, one suggesting that William has been much tougher through the rift than previously thought.
Harry & Meghan – life today
“Most people thought the main blame for the fall-out was not Meghan, but instead the brothers themselves,” Griffiths said as quoted by Express.
“A new picture is emerging that William is much tougher in this situation than we previously thought. He is very, very firm. He was much tougher behind the scenes very early on.”
She explained: “William had felt that the smoothing over hadn’t been working for quite a long time at that moment. He felt decisive action was needed, that he needed to play them at their own game.”
These days, Harry and Meghan are settling down in their new life in California. The couple welcomed their second child, daughter Lilibet, earlier this year, and are now dedicating themselves to new projects outside of the royal sphere.
Still to this day, the couple haven’t released any photos of Lilibet to the world. But in an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres earlier this fall, Meghan gave viewers some insight into how their family spent Halloween. It turned out that their son, Archie, had dressed up as a dinosaur and Lilibet as a skunk.
“We were home, and we saw you guys [Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi], which was great, but we wanted to do something fun for the kids, and then the kids were just not into it at all,” Meghan recalled. “Archie was a dinosaur for maybe five minutes.”
“Not even five minutes,” Ellen asked.
“It was not even five minutes,” Meghan said.
New details on the relationship emerge
Of course, the last number of months have focused largely around Queen Elizabeth, who’s been having a tough time of things. The monarch had to cancel several trips and royal duties due to health problems, but thankfully now she seems to be back on her feet.
Since the Queen can’t perform royal duties as she did before, Prince Charles and son William have to step up. This is especially important after the passing of the Queen’s beloved husband, Prince Philip, earlier this year.
Naturally, Charles and Harry’s relationship hasn’t been at its best following his and Meghan leaving the Royal Family; the comments about the Firm reportedly sparked angry reactions in Buckingham Palace, especially from Charles.
William, it’s said, has taken Charles’ side in the alleged feud with Harry. And now, new details about the two brothers have been revealed.
In his book Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan, bestselling author Christopher Andersen reveals that there is indeed bad blood remaining between William and Harry.
William isn’t returning Harry’s phone calls
Rather than standing up for his brother during the immense fallout, William took his father’s side.
“It’s really Charles and William versus Harry and Meghan,” Andersen told Fox News.
“William is fiercely loyal to his father. He thinks his father is a great historical figure who has been underestimated. And he feels for his dad. They all love the Queen. But when you’re maybe going to be king when you’re almost 80 years old, it’s a sad position to be in. So William has been by his father’s side.”
William and Harry met for the first time since the Oprah interview when a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, was unveiled in London back in June. Many believed that it would be a time for the two brothers to make amends and iron out any problems. According to Andersen, though, nothing has changed.
The author claimed that William isn’t returning any of Harry’s phone calls, and hasn’t for months. As for Charles and Harry, the two haven’t spoken at all.
In the Oprah Winfrey interview, Harry and Meghan claimed that a member of the Royal Family had been concerned regarding the skin color of their then-unborn son Archie. This was a particular note of controversy.
“Innocent comment” by Prince Charles
They never revealed who the member was, but Andersen claims that he has tracked down the person responsible for the comment.
“They wouldn’t reveal who it was. Harry later said the comment didn’t come from the Queen or Prince Philip. Well, I found that it was a very innocent comment made by Prince Charles,” Andersen claimed.
“He turned to Camilla and said, ‘I wonder what the kids are going to look like.’ “You know, hair color, eye color, complexion. It wasn’t racially motivated or anything. But the men in gray who run things behind the scenes at the palaces spun it into something more sinister-sounding,” he added.
“Harry was upset and asked Charles and William what was going on. They told him, ‘You’re overreacting; you’re being oversensitive. Let’s move on.’ And it just added fuel to the fire. There was a lot of tension already, and that just made it so much worse.”
What do you make of all this? Do you think William is doing the right thing by not talking to his brother? Please give us your opinion in the comment section.
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