Prince William and Prince Harry have reportedly been “feuding” for years now, following a series of heated fallouts which has left their relationship incredibly strained.
From claims that their divide began when Prince Harry wed Meghan Markle, to allegations that Prince William kicked off the arguing, there is plenty of speculation about the brothers’ relationship.
But before the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex were at odds, they shared a decades-long brotherly bond like no other – forged in the aftermath of their mother’s tragic death.
As children, Harry and William played together and supported each other through the heart-wrenching loss of their mother, Princess Diana.
They were thick as thieves as teenagers, then became brothers in arms when they joined the British Armed Forced back-to-back in 2005 and 2006.
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And in 2011, when William wed Kate Middleton in the biggest royal event of the century, it was Harry standing at his side as best man.
Seven years later when Prince Harry married Duchess Meghan, his older brother returned the favour as best man.
Fast forward to 2021 and the royal siblings’ relationship is reportedly more strained than ever before,” Prince Harry confessed during his explosive interview with Oprah in March.
“As I’ve said before, I love William to bits. He’s my brother. We’ve been through hell together. I mean, we have a shared experience. But we’re on different paths.”
So when did things go sour, and how have the brothers navigated their frosty dynamic ever since?
We’ve taken a look back at their relationship over the years to see when it all changed, in the lead up to their reunion for what would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana welcomed their first son Prince William in 1982, with Prince Harry arriving just a few years later in 1984. From the early days, the brothers seemed to share a sweet bond that was obvious in childhood photos of them together.
Even as small children, Harry and William shared a unique relationship defined by their status as royals. Grandsons to a queen and sons to a future king, the boys were destined for futures in a monarchy much bigger than them – but that didn’t matter when they were kids. Here the princes look like any set of brothers playing together in their matching military outfits.
The young princes even attended school together, posing together on Harry’s first day in 1989. Traditionally, royal children had been educated at home, but Harry and William shook up the system when Diana chose to send them to Wetherby School in Notting Hill, London.
Harry and William were undoubtedly affected by their parents’ separation in 1992 and subsequent divorce in 1996, but they maintained a close relationship with both parents. For her part, Diana worked hard to give her sons as normal a childhood as possible, including trips to McDonald’s!
In 1997, Harry and William faced a shared tragedy: the death of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Killed in a car crash in Paris, Diana’s passing was mourned around the world, but no one was as affected by her death as her two sons.
Just 15 and 12 at the time, William and Harry walked behind their mother’s coffin at her public funeral in September 1997 and were united in their grief. “My brother and I’s relationship is closer than it’s been because of the situations we’ve been through,” William said of their mother’s death, according to ABC News.
Without their mother, Harry and William leaned on each other for support as they grew from boys into men. Though they weren’t in the public eye as much in their teen years and early twenties, by all accounts the brothers were still close friends and spent plenty of time together.
Harry went on to become something of a “Party Prince” in his twenties, which is said to have been an issue between him and William, who had to take his royal duties more seriously as the second in line to his grandmother’s throne.
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The royal duo shared many passions, including their dedication to their roles in the British Armed Forces. William’s military career began in 2006 and went on to train in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, eventually becoming an air ambulance pilot in 2014.
Harry actually kicked off his military career a year before his elder brother, joining the armed forces in 2005 and forging an impressive career in the British Army. They even lived together during their training, but Harry joked: “First and last time we’ll be living together, I assure you of that.”
In 2011 Harry stood proudly at his brother’s side as William said “I do” in the royal wedding of the century. He and Kate Middleton married at Westminster Abbey after years of dating, and Harry is said to have been thrilled for his older brother.
It helped that the younger prince had formed a close relationship with his new sister-in-law during Kate’s years dating William and getting to know the royal family.
Even after William wed Kate, the brothers remained close and Harry often accompanied the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for royal engagements and social events. But that apparently changed in 2016, when Harry met Meghan Markle and the pair began dating.
In 2017 Harry announced he and Meghan Markle were engaged, but behind the scenes his happy news had supposedly caused tensions between him and William. According to The Sun, William was unsure about Meghan’s “intentions” when Harry first began dating her, a concern that didn’t sit well with Harry.
The brothers supposedly quarrelled over Harry’s relationship with the American actress, and William reportedly wasn’t convinced she’d be able to take on the responsibilities of royal life and was worried it was progressing too fast. But they still had their good moments, and when Harry announced his engagement William joked via Town & Country Magazine: “For me personally, I hope it means he stays out of my fridge and will stop scrounging my food, which he’s done for the last few years!”
Despite William’s supposed reservations about Meghan, he stood by Harry’s side as best man at Harry and Meghan’s 2018 royal wedding. The brothers’ relationship was still strained though, with reports that a misunderstanding between Meghan and Kate during wedding planning had spilled over into Harry and William’s relationship.
It was reported at the time that Meghan had made Kate cry at a dress fitting, but Meghan later claimed it was the other way around – and she was the one in tears – during her and Harry’s 2020 Oprah interview.
Not long after Meghan and Harry wed, there were new signs of strain between the prince and his brother. In 2018 claims emerged within Kensington Palace that Meghan had bullied staff, and royal author Robert Lacey alleged in his book Battle of Brothers that William and Harry had an explosive argument over the accusations.
Then, in early 2019, Harry and Meghan moved out of Kensington Palace and formally split their household apart from William and Kate’s. Until then, the royal “fab four” had been a cohesive unit under the ‘Kensington Palace’ branding, but those days were over.
Claims of a “feud” between Harry and William continued to grow in 2019, with reports that the brothers had clashed over Harry’s new wife. William allegedly still didn’t fully approve of Meghan, causing friction between the brothers. In a 2019 interview, Harry said he and William were “on different paths” but that he and William would still always be there for one another.
The siblings stood apart at Harry and Meghan’s final event as senior royals in March 2020, when they attended the Commonwealth Day Service with the rest of the royal family. There were wide reports of “tension” between the brothers at the event, and Harry formally quit his royal role at the end of the month.
Things between the two princes reportedly only got worse after Harry and Meghan’s royal exit, especially when they spoke out about their royal gripes. Harry’s comments about the monarchy and Prince Charles during his and Meghan’s Oprah interview and other appearances are said to have left William fuming.
Harry and William finally reunited for the first time in over a year at the funeral of their grandfather, Prince Philip, on April 17, 2021. Harry returned to the UK for the sombre event, following the Duke fo Edinburgh’s death on April 9 at the age of 99.
All eyes were on the brothers as they walked in the royal funeral procession, with mass speculation over a possible reconciliation between them. They were later seen talking as they left the funeral at Windsor Castle, but Harry returned to the US soon after with no sign of a renewed closeness between the brothers. But just weeks earlier Harry had told Oprah: “I love William to bits, he’s my brother, we’ve been through hell together.”
