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

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

Buckingham Palace confirmed in a statement on Friday that the Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle would not “continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service” and would be stripped of their royal patronages. The couple “remain much loved members of the family”, the statement added.

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”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“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.