If there’s anyone who knows what it’s like to have a highly public fallout with your brother and sister-in-law, it’s the Princess of Wales.
So it’s no surprise Kate – whose rift with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has become the stuff of royal folklore – has reached out to her longtime friend Princess Mary, amid the chaos of her own feud with Prince Frederik’s brother Prince Joachim and his wife Princess Marie.
In an eerily similar set of circumstances, after the rift between Fred, his sibling and their wives was exposed, Joachim and Marie announced they would be moving to the US – much like Harry and Meghan did in 2020.
TRUSTED FRIEND
“It has been a rough few years for Mary, who should be spending her time preparing to become queen rather than dealing with petty family issues,” says a source. “Kate knows all too well how that feels.”
Kate, 41, and Australian-born Mary, 51, are longtime friends who first met in 2011, and spent time together when the future British queen visited Denmark.
“They’ve always shared an easy friendship. Aside from the obvious shared future, they’re both very down-to-earth women who love sports, their kids and letting their hair down a little around people they can trust,” says a source.
“And there’s an awful lot of trust between Kate and Mary. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Kate made a few empathetic phone calls to Mary through this mess – they both know it would go no further. And since Mary’s isolated by sheer distance and time difference from her longtime girlfriends in Australia, Kate’s guidance would be much appreciated.”
A separate source close to the British royal adds, “Kate’s advice to Mary in this situation would be to simply support Fred. Because whatever she’s feeling, it’s 10 times worse for her husband, who feels like he’s lost a brother. Just being a shoulder to lean on is most important.”