Prince William has quashed any prospect of a royal reconciliation with his brother Prince Harry, sources said last night.
The Duke of Sussex is understood to have had several “warm exchanges” with his father following his cancer diagnosis, and has told friends that he would step into a royal role while his father is unwell.
Such a royal reset would inevitably mean Harry and William putting their differences aside. But the idea was firmly dismissed by sources close to the Prince of Wales.
A royal source said: “There’s no way that the Prince of Wales will wear it. Harry may well want to step back into a royal role but as far as his brother is concerned nothing has changed.
“Prince William has enough on his plate at the moment. His father is being treated for cancer and his wife is recovering from abdominal surgery. He simply doesn’t have the bandwidth for this.”
Reports of Prince Harry seeking a partial return to royal duties emerged when Harry appeared to offer a very public olive branch to his family in an interview on American television.
US interviewer Will Reeve asked Harry, 39, how his whirlwind visit to his father at Clarence House following his cancer diagnosis was “emotionally”.
Harry said: “I love my family, the fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that.
Royal watchers believe a return to the fold for Harry would be far from a simple case of giving him a list of engagements to attend.
The Prince and Princess Kate harbour a deep distrust of Harry and fear it would trigger a melodramatic re-run of when he left, with agonising talks and detailed demands.
The plea for a stand-in role is similar to what he proposed in 2020 before leaving with Meghan for a new life in California. That was summarily dismissed by the late Queen, who ruled that the Sussexes could not be “half in, half out.”
And the slurs unleashed against the family, including Queen Camilla, in TV interviews and books continue to cast giant shadows.
Harry is also in the middle of controversial High Court litigation which could drag on for many months.
Asked about the chances of a rapprochement between the warring brothers, an insider said: “There has been no movement. William’s position hasn’t changed.”
While the heir to the throne did open communication channels, it is a long way from allowing Harry to re-establish himself in the royal nest. Harry had a 30-minute meeting with the King and Queen at Clarence House after a transatlantic dash from California following his father’s diagnosis, where the proposal was not raised.
If the proposal was made formally, it would require a written plan to be drawn up and actioned by the King and his closest aides before Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, could embark on any official duties on behalf of the monarch. Harry would not receive public funds, it was understood.
In Britain for less than 24 hours, Harry did not meet up with his brother Prince William or Kate, who is recovering from abdominal surgery and won’t return to royal duties until after Easter at the earliest. In fact, the idea was not even entertained.
In the interview to mark the countdown to the Invictus Games on Friday, Harry admitted he had considered seeking American citizenship but added that it was not a high priority.
“I love my family. The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him – I’m grateful for that,” he said.
It was another question which revealed his underlying ambition, however. Asked whether illness could have a reunifying effect on a family, he replied: “Yeah, I’m sure. Through all these families [at the Games] I see it on a day-to-day basis, the strength of the family unit coming together.”
Sadly, the hurt inflicted through a series of high-profile interviews and authorised books is too great for any rift to be healed quickly, royal experts say.
In his autobiography Spare, Harry raged against his family, accusing William of pushing him on to a dog bowl in a rage. Nor did he spare his sister-in-law Kate, at one point presented as prudish for only reluctantly lending Meghan a lip balm.
“Harry’s memoir was a lightning bolt of pain for William, and it would take a lot of healing and understanding for them to retrieve their friendship,” said one royal insider.
Royal expert Michael Cole said: “The chances of Prince William extending a hand to his brother to endeavour to resolve the differences between them are very slim. In fact, in the words of Mohammed Ali in a different context, there are two chances, slim and none.”
“The reason is that in addition to the allegations that Prince Harry has made against his brother accusing him of physical violence, Harry has done the unforgivable thing – he has criticised his wife the Princess of Wales, who is a huge asset to the royal family and has done her job in an exemplary way.”
He added former gossip columnist Omid Scobie’s book Endgame made the allegation two senior royals had made racist comments.
He said: “Racism is a very egregious allegation and it’s particularly vile because it is impossible to refute. You have to prove a negative, you have to prove you are not racist and that’s nigh impossible.
“In their Netflix show that went on for six hours there were overt and subtle digs and criticisms of not just leading members of the Royal family but also the institution of monarchy itself, which has given Prince Harry a life of unimaginable privilege and prestige.
“He owes everything to the fact he is the King’s son and the son of Diana, Princess of Wales, whose own royal ancestry dates back four centuries to King Charles II. So that is the difficulty.”
That’s not to say the situation is permanent, however.
“I am sure Prince William, who hasn’t made any mistakes and judges these things well, would never rule out forever that he could not reconcile with his brother,” said Cole. “But that would require extensive fence mending on behalf of Prince Harry personally, directly and with many, many apologies.
“Because the allegations and charges that have been made against senior members of the royal family, and specifically the King, are egregious charges.”
