Will the Sussexes’ royal exit help heal rift between William and Harry?

Insiders hope severing of work ties may help the princes repair their fractured relationship

Prince William alongside Prince Harry at his wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018
The brothers at Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018
(Image credit: Owen Humphreys/AFP via Getty Images)

Prince Harry’s decision not to return to royal duties may pave the way to a reconciliation with his brother, sources are predicting.

This love is still evident between the two princes, according to The Times, which reports that William “hopes that his brother’s final departure from royal duties will help to mend the rift between them”.

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“Removing work as the thing to cause tension between them will hopefully allow a relationship of brothers to rebuild,” a source told the paper. “But there’s a long way to go.”

One possible stumbling block is the Sussexes’ response to the Palace’s statement last week. The couple insisted that they would still be living “a life of service” - a response that another source told The Sunday Times was “petulant and insulting to the Queen”.

The Royals are also believed to be concerned about Harry and Meghan’s decision to record a potentially explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, due to be broadcast on 7 March.

All the same, some insiders have suggested that as long as the couple “refrain from making any personal attacks, the damage caused in recent years could be fixed”, The Telegraph reports.

A source to the paper that “there is hope that they can all move forward now these loose ends have been tied up once and for all” during the one-year review following what has been dubbed “Megxit”.

“Now it has finally been resolved, it allows all parties to work on purely family matters,” the source added.

However, the Daily Mail tells a very different story, claiming that William was “left furious and saddened” by the Sussexes’ response to the Palace statement last week.

The row has “placed even further strain” on the relationship between the brothers, with some in the Palace warning of “the most serious royal rift in decades”, the paper reports.

 
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.