Prince William Has Lost One of His "Top Advisers" in Harry

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published 9 April 2024

Prince William and Prince Harry always seemed like close friends in their day: Not only did they both grow up in the difficult environment that is the Royal Family, but they also survived the untimely death of their mother together. Plus, during public appearances, they always gave the impression of a tight-knit pair of brothers.

But since Harry and his wife Meghan Markle left their royal duties—and the U.K.—in 2020, the royal brothers' relationship has gone from bad to worse. These days, they reportedly don't speak at all. This, for one royal expert, is a huge loss for William, given his destiny as the future King.

"They were really, really close. And this is what makes it so sad that they're now so far apart," Charles Rae said on The Sun's Royal Exclusive show.

"When William becomes King, I always believed Harry would be one of his top advisers. I think that's out of the window."

Rae continued, "that's what Diana always wanted, the boys to remain as close as possible, they had each other, and it was them against the rest of the world, but of course now it's not happening."

Fun, Child, Leisure, Smile, — Princess Diana wanted Princes William and Harry to always have each other's backs.

While some believe that William and Harry's relationship was destroyed entirely by the Duke of Sussex' departure and his shock revelations on TV and in his book Spare, this is a bit of a simplistic view.

In fact, there were signs of a rift between the two men since as far back as 2002, according to royal biographer Robert Lacey, who reported that the two had periods of "no speaks" even at the time.

Another piece of evidence that has been pointed to as a sign that the brothers weren't such good friends after all is a video from their days in the Army, circa 2009, in which the two throw jab after jab at each other. Although this was under the guise of "banter," body language expert Judi James felt that there were "several red flags" that this all went too far, and veered into unpleasantness instead.

All that to say—William may have lost the opportunity to have a "top adviser" in Harry long before 2020.

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Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.