‘Battle of Brothers’ Book Explores Prince William and Prince Harry’s Strained Relationship: 12 Revelations

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'Battle of Brothers' Book Explores Prince William and Prince Harry’s Strained Relationship: 12 Revelations

A new royal tell-all is providing new insight into Prince William and Prince Harry’s rocky relationship. Reporter Robert Lacey explores the origins of the princes’ rift in his book, Battle of Brothers: William and Harry – The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult, which was released on Tuesday, October 20. Lacey, who works as the historical consultant for Netflix’s The Crown, has been writing about Queen Elizabeth II and the British royal family for four decades. According to the author, the tension between William, 38, and Harry, 36, “runs deep” after a disagreement over the latter’s relationship with wife Meghan Markle. "What many people would like to see is those two brothers to come back together. But ... they are not going to,” Lacey told The Sun earlier this month, claiming the resentment between them was "crystallized by Meghan.” Harry and Meghan, 39, started seeing each other in 2016. After announcing their engagement in November 2017, the twosome exchanged vows at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in England in May 2018. Harry and Meghan went on to welcome son Archie in May 2019. By early 2020, the couple announced their plans to step back from their roles working for the monarch. By March, the pair officially moved to the United States and have yet to return to the U.K. “Harry, of course, is on the record several times saying he does not like the term Megxit. He insists it was his decision, but it's the advent of this dynamic, controversial woman who brings fresh dimensions to his life and a fresh look,” Lacey said. "Why should he play the second role to William all the time? That's close to the roots of what went wrong in the split." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv5l4OvmrXU The author later told Us Weekly that if the two brothers ever were to come back together, it would be because Prince Charles stepped in. “In the light of the rift, [William] and his father are much closer together. There are no more of these arguments. As for Harry, I would hope that the relationship between Harry and his father, which remains quite close and warm — as indeed is his relationship directly with the queen — that might be some way ahead for reconciliation,” he told Us. “I mean the obvious person to create or encourage your reconciliation is Charles. He hasn't come into the picture so far as we know so far. It's very interesting.” No members of the royal family have yet to publicly comment on Lacey’s new book. Scroll through for the biggest takeaways from Battle of Brothers:

Credit:

'Battle of Brothers' Book Explores Prince William and Prince Harry’s Strained Relationship: 12 Revelations

A new royal tell-all is providing new insight into Prince William and Prince Harry’s rocky relationship. Reporter Robert Lacey explores the origins of the princes’ rift in his book, Battle of Brothers: William and Harry – The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult, which was released on Tuesday, October 20. Lacey, who works as the historical consultant for Netflix’s The Crown, has been writing about Queen Elizabeth II and the British royal family for four decades. According to the author, the tension between William, 38, and Harry, 36, “runs deep” after a disagreement over the latter’s relationship with wife Meghan Markle. "What many people would like to see is those two brothers to come back together. But ... they are not going to,” Lacey told The Sun earlier this month, claiming the resentment between them was "crystallized by Meghan.” Harry and Meghan, 39, started seeing each other in 2016. After announcing their engagement in November 2017, the twosome exchanged vows at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in England in May 2018. Harry and Meghan went on to welcome son Archie in May 2019. By early 2020, the couple announced their plans to step back from their roles working for the monarch. By March, the pair officially moved to the United States and have yet to return to the U.K. “Harry, of course, is on the record several times saying he does not like the term Megxit. He insists it was his decision, but it's the advent of this dynamic, controversial woman who brings fresh dimensions to his life and a fresh look,” Lacey said. "Why should he play the second role to William all the time? That's close to the roots of what went wrong in the split." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv5l4OvmrXU The author later told Us Weekly that if the two brothers ever were to come back together, it would be because Prince Charles stepped in. “In the light of the rift, [William] and his father are much closer together. There are no more of these arguments. As for Harry, I would hope that the relationship between Harry and his father, which remains quite close and warm — as indeed is his relationship directly with the queen — that might be some way ahead for reconciliation,” he told Us. “I mean the obvious person to create or encourage your reconciliation is Charles. He hasn't come into the picture so far as we know so far. It's very interesting.” No members of the royal family have yet to publicly comment on Lacey’s new book. Scroll through for the biggest takeaways from Battle of Brothers:

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William Was Upset the Palace Announced Meghan Was in Labor 8 Hours After She Gave Birth

“Their stratagem was bolstered by Buckingham Palace’s putting out a strangely misleading statement at 2 p.m. that day saying that the Duchess of Sussex was just going into labor — when she had, in fact, been delivered of her new son eight hours earlier,” the book states, claiming William “did not think too highly of Harry and Meghan’s ‘prima donna’ [maneuvers] to conceal the birth of their son” in May 2019.

Kate also wasn’t happy, according to the book. As a result, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge waited eight dates to meet Archie. “By contrast, the Queen, Prince Philip, Charles and Camilla all turned up within hours to coo over the baby — and it seemed strange that, when the Cambridges did finally pitch up more than a week later, they didn’t bring along George, Charlotte and Louis to welcome their new cousin,” Lacey writes.

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The Queen Saved William From a 'Breakdown' After Parents’ Divorce

“It was then three years after his parents’ separation – just two years before Diana’s death – and the Queen was worried about William’s state of mind,” Lacey writes. “The Queen actually feared that the boy might be heading for some sort of breakdown, she confided to one of her advisors – just as the prince’s mother herself had clearly cracked up mentally in several respects.”

The monarch started having weekly lunches with William, which “helped to turn the fragile schoolboy heading for a breakdown into quite a tough young man.”

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William Felt 'Disdain' Toward Charles Growing Up

According to Lacey, William’s relationship with his father was strained during Charles and Diana’s tumultuous relationship. The author claims Charles’ eldest son felt “open disdain and aggression towards his father that has lasted to the present day.”

William often sided with his mother prior to her 1997 death, per the book. “I hate you, Papa. I hate you so much,” he allegedly once screamed at his dad. “Why do you make Mummy cry all the time?”

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Harry Was Aware William Would Be King at a Young Age

In the book, Lacey claims that a 4-year-old Harry declared he could do whatever he wants because he was the spare heir.

“Ken Wharfe, bodyguard to Diana and the two boys in the late 1980s, recalls a telling incident when the family were traveling from London to Highgrove for the weekend. According to Wharfe, Harry and his brother got embroiled in an argument in the back seat of the car, with their nanny vainly seeking to referee the dispute,” the book reads. “‘You’ll be king one day,’ said the four-year-old Harry. ‘I won’t. So I can do what I want.’ ‘Where the hell did he get that from?’ asked Diana.”

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William Was ‘Keen to Meet Camilla’ After Diana’s Death

After Diana’s death in 1997, Charles officially reunited with his former girlfriend, Camilla. “When Diana’s friends found out about it, they said that her elder son was betraying her memory – but William really was very keen to meet Camilla. He saw it as his next priority,” Lacey writes, adding that William met Camilla in 1998. She met Harry later that year.

“But, as with William, the encounter seems to have piqued her own anxieties more than it did the laidback juvenile. ‘Whatever makes you happy, Papa,’ was the standard response of both Diana’s boys to Charles’s efforts to construct a new family circle around his now ever more present companion,” the book reads. “The brothers did not feign great enthusiasm, but they expressed no hostility either.”

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Why Kate Declined Her First Chance to Have Christmas With the Queen

Nearly five years into her relationship with William, Kate was invited to spend Christmas at Sandringham with his family. The future duchess, however, “refused” because they weren’t engaged yet. “It was the first time the Queen had ever extended such an invitation to an unregistered ‘girlfriend', but Kate had her own take on that break with tradition: she would go to Sandringham on Christmas Day only when she had been registered and had a ring to prove it. She went off to Scotland to spend the holiday with her family instead,” the book reads.

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William Enlisted Uncle Charles to Help Talk to Harry About Meghan

Battle of Brothers isn’t the first book to report that Harry was upset when William suggested he and Meghan were moving too quickly. Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand’s Finding Freedom made similar claims. According to Lacey, however, Diana’s brother Charles Spencer was also involved.

“After several more peppery reactions, William turned to his uncle Charles Spencer for help,” the book states. “The result of the Spencer intervention was an even more bitter explosion. Once again Harry refused to slow down. He didn’t blame his uncle. He understood why Diana’s brother should want to help. Yet he was furious with his elder brother for dragging other family members into the row.”

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The Sussexes and Cambridges Had Different Goals

While William and Kate initially joined forces with Harry and Meghan through a joint charity, it didn’t take long for them to separate their offices. According to Lacey, Harry and Meghan enlisted Sunshine Sachs “to develop their personal redemption tactics” during their 2019 10-day tour of South Africa. Their personal goals didn’t line up with the palace, according to the book.

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William Wanted to Send Harry ‘a Message’ With Christmas 2019 Succession Photo

In December 2019, the palace released a photo with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince George. That same year, Harry and Meghan skipped Christmas with the queen. “According to insiders, this formal photograph, taken in the Buckingham Palace Throne Room a week before Christmas 2019, was the idea of Prince Charles, anxious to promote his cause of the ‘slimmed-down monarchy,’” Lacey writes. “Palace sources have also let it be known that the plan of depicting the direct line of royal succession was enthusiastically supported by Prince William, who was not saying anything for the record – but who wanted to send his younger brother a message.”

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Why the Queen Refused to Let Harry and Meghan Use the Term ‘Royals’

After a brief phone discussion over Christmas 2019, Harry informed his family of his official plans to step back from the family in January 2020, per Lacey. “It was reliably reported that Her Majesty remained well-disposed towards her grandson and granddaughter-in-law. She wished them well in their new life in Canada – and her ‘eighth great-grandchild’ as well, of course. But it was also said by those in the know that the couple’s erratic and impulsive behavior for the past year had not inclined Queen Elizabeth II to entrust the Sussexes with the use of the word ‘royal’ any time soon,” the book states.

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The Final Event

Harry and Meghan attended their last official event as senior royals in March 2020 at the Commonwealth Day Service. During the televised event, viewers were quick to point out William and Kate barely acknowledged the twosome during the service. Lacey writes that Harry wasn’t happy when plans for the two couples to join the queen’s entrance were adjusted last minute.

“When Harry heard that he and Meghan were to be so graphically shunted aside on this final appearance, he was furious. The subservience of a ‘spare’ – one of the basic reasons for this very sad parting of the ways – could not have been more strikingly illustrated,” the book states. “The phone lines had hummed over the preceding weekend (the service was on a Monday afternoon) – and fortunately Prince William had more sense than his underlings. He and Kate would be quite happy, he declared, to skip the procession and to take their places without ceremony in the congregation alongside Harry and Uncle Edward.”

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Harry’s Current Status With His Family

According to the book, the queen offered Harry “the possibility of a review” after 12 months of living in the U.S. with Meghan, but he declined. Not long after Harry and Meghan left London, travel restrictions were implemented amid the coronavirus pandemic.  

“When the royal family were trying not to shout too hard at each other in January 2020 over Harry and Meghan’s departure, Prince Harry himself was not receptive to the idea of the separation being only for a year’s ‘trial’. But as this book went to press, the conclusion of that trial period was only six months distant – ending on 31 March 2021,” Lacey writes. “So will Harry and Meghan ever come home again? It is easy to forget how the couple’s plan was always for some sort of ‘come-and-go’ transatlantic existence. Without the intervention of COVID-19, Harry, Meghan and Archie were planning to return to Frogmore Cottage in the summer of 2020, and they were due to be shuttling back to Britain for a further visit over Christmas and New Year – in curious contradiction of their ecological disapproval of excessive transcontinental travel. Somehow, the acquisition of an [$14.65 million] mansion on the California coast has changed all that.”

Lacey notes that Charles’ brush with COVID-19 during the spring of 2020 brought the brothers to “resume telephone contact, but no one more has come of that.”