Harry had cruel 'realisation' about Prince William during major funeral showdown

17 November 2023 , 07:00

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Harry had cruel 'realisation' about Prince William during major funeral showdown

They were once the seemingly tight brothers who have been torn apart by a bitter rift engulfing their family. And Prince Harry once pinpointed the moment he felt something "shifted inside of me" when it came to his estranged brother Prince William.

For several years now, the pair have drifted apart in a cold feud with relations between the once-tight pair seeming to be at rock bottom.

Since Harry quit his royal role for a new life in the United States, he has only been reunited with the now Prince of Wales a handful of times - with no sign of reconciliation on the cards. One of those tense reunions came in April 2021 when Harry returned for the funeral of the late Prince Philip, just weeks after his and Meghan Markle's bombshell tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Princes William and Harry, who have been locked in a bitter feud

Many hoped the sad event would prove to be a chance for the two brothers to bury the hatchet, but writing in his memoir Spare, Harry claimed that he was "stopped cold" during a confrontation with William - and had a cruel yet startling realisation about his older brother.

He describes how he and William began arguing when they met up after the funeral along with their father King Charles, who pleaded with them: "Please, boys – don’t make my final years a misery."

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And Harry explains: "All at once something shifted inside of me. I looked at Willy, really looked at him, maybe for the first time since we were boys. I took it all in: his familiar scowl, which had always been his default in dealings with me; his alarming baldness, more advanced than my own; his famous resemblance to Mummy, which was fading with time.

"With age. In some ways, he was my mirror, in some ways he was my opposite. My beloved brother, my arch nemesis, how had that happened?"

The pair in the aftermath of the death of their late grandmother the Queen (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The heated discussion came on the day they said their final goodbyes to their late grandfather with Harry recalling in the book how William forced him to look into his eyes so he could tell him that he loved him and wanted him to be happy. Harry then says he told his brother that he loved him too but that his "stubbornness is extraordinary" and pulled away. He goes on to claim that William pulled him back and said: "Harold you must listen to me, I just want you to be happy, Harold, I swear, I swear on mummy’s life."

Harry says this stopped them both as William had "used the secret code", the universal password, ever since we were boys those three words were to be used only in times of extreme crisis, ‘on mummy’s life’. He goes on to detail how they had reserved that vow for times when they believed one of them needed to be heard.

Earlier this week it was reported that royal courtiers were furious over revelations about William and Harry's feud which erupted as the Queen lay dying. Palace insiders tore into author Omid Scobie over a string of claims he made about the pair's fractious relationship during a time of personal grief for the Royal Family.

The writer, who was previously briefed by Meghan for another of his books, alleges William ignored Harry's calls as he ­desperately tried to get to the late Queen's bedside. He said there was "no proof" Charles phoned his youngest son during his gran's dying moments. And Omid's book, Endgame, says of William: "He feels he has lost Harry and doesn't want to know this version of him." Scobie also said the Prince is convinced his brother has been brainwashed by an "army of ­therapists" in America.

A royal insider said: "It appears no matter what happens behind closed doors, even in a time of such pain and grief, that where the Royal Family are concerned it will one day emerge. Nothing is off limits with William and Kate appearing to be this author’s number one target. It only takes a few months for the knives to come out again and the wounds to be opened up."

Jennifer Newton