12 August 2023 , 09:00
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They once appeared to share an unshakeable bond and seemed to be inseparable as brothers.
But for several years now, Prince William and Prince Harry have drifted apart in a bitter rift 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.
Prince Harry has claimed that William used a secret code word during an argument at Prince Philip's funeral (Yui Muk/AP/REX/Shutterstock)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, who used a "secret code" they had for "times of extreme crisis".
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.
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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."
The two brothers at the funeral of their grandfather Prince Philip (AFP via Getty Images)Harry said 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.
And Harry added: "It stopped me cold, as it was meant to. Not because he'd used it, but because it didn’t work. I simply didn’t believe him." Elsewhere in Spare, Harry writes how William attacked him during another confrontation at Kensington Palace and in his controversial Netflix series, he claims his older brother screamed and shouted at him during a meeting.
It was a far cry from how the brothers had been portrayed as having a tight bond - especially in the wake of the death of their mother Princess Diana. But according to royal biographer Ingrid Seward, the brothers have never been close - a nd any reunion between them may be "many years" off.
Speaking on True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat, she said: "They painted this lovely picture that they were great friends, but they weren’t. There was always huge rivalry between them. They were never really great friends and I can’t see [them coming back together] until maybe many, many years in the future. If disaster struck one or other of them, that would bring them together. But I cannot see it happening [otherwise]."