There’s Only One Person Who Has Any Hope of Facilitating Peace Between Prince William and Prince Harry, Former Royal Butler Says

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published 9 September 2023

Had life shaken out differently, it would have been Princess Diana, the mother of both Prince William and Prince Harry, who would have stepped in to heal the ongoing rift between her sons, Diana’s former butler and confidante Paul Burrell said. But, since Diana died in a Parisian car accident 26 years ago last week, that’s obviously not possible, and the mantle to help mend fences comes down to one person, and one person only, he said: Princess Catherine, William’s wife and Harry’s sister-in-law.

“The only person that has a faint chance of reconciliation with the boys will be Kate,” Burrell said, per The Mirror.

Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry

Catherine was dubbed the “regal peacemaker” after being spotted subtly giving William and Harry the chance to speak alone following the funeral of their grandfather, Prince Philip, in April 2021—just one month after Harry and wife Meghan Markle’s explosive sit-down with Oprah Winfrey. As the three left St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, Catherine took a few steps back and allowed William and Harry to talk face-to-face for the first time in months.

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Since then, unfortunately, tensions have continued to mount, most specifically surrounding Harry and Meghan’s eponymous six-part Netflix docuseries and, most especially, Harry’s memoir, Spare, released in January.

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There was a time when William, Catherine, and Harry were a tight-knit trio; Harry said before William’s marriage to Catherine that he was “absolutely delighted” to welcome her into the family. “I’ve always wanted a sister, and now I’ve got one,” he said, per The Daily Express. “I’ve known Kate for years, and it’s fantastic that she is becoming part of the family.”

But inside the pages of Spare, Harry wrote that he knew William was “gone forever” after he and Catherine were married. “The brother I’d escorted into Westminster Abbey that morning was gone—forever,” he wrote. “Who could deny it? He’d never again be first and foremost Willy. We’d never again ride together across the Lesotho countryside with capes blowing behind us. We’d never again share a horsey-smelling cottage while learning to fly. Who shall separate us? Life, that’s who.”

Harry was in the U.K. on Thursday and Friday, where he attended the WellChild Awards and yesterday, on the one-year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s passing, paid homage to her by visiting her burial site at Windsor. William and Catherine, meanwhile, were in Wales commemorating the loss, and the brothers are not known to currently be interacting.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.