Prince Harry and Prince William's precarious truce shows no signs of being permanent say insiders
LONDON, ENGLAND: The fractured relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry seemed to be recovering when they made a rare joint appearance to inspect flowers outside Windsor palace. However, some wounds were opened again on Saturday night, September 17, after the two warring brothers decided not to travel in the same car after guarding the Queen's coffin together with 'no meaningful rapproachment'.
A report by The Sunday Times claimed that the royal brothers were no closer to 'mending' their relationship despite spending more time in closer proximity. In the past week, the duo made many rare joint appearances including walking behind the Queen's coffin at Westminster.
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After guarding the Queen’s coffin at Westminster hall, the brothers decided to take separate back home despite living a few miles away from each other. While the Prince of Wales traveled back with his eldest cousin Peter Phillips, the Duke of Sussex chose the company of Zara Tindall, whose husband Mike reportedly called him a 'b***end' at the Platinum Jubilee.
According to sources close to the brothers, "The joint appearances take effort. There was an understanding that, 'We need to show solidarity,' not just, 'We need to do this because it's our duty.' But I don't think it goes much beyond that. There have been some awkward moments this week. I definitely don't get the sense of any deeper meaningful rapprochement or a sense that this is it: things will be mended."
The report also claimed that the two brothers bumped into each other on Harry’s 38th birthday on Thursday, September 15, but only shared a few words through the car windows. Harry was driving through the Windsor estate with his wife Meghan Markle when he bumped into William. After passing each other, the duo reversed to greet each other. however, they stayed in their cars, choosing to wind down their windows and chat for a while.
A friend of the Sussexes said, "They are very sensitive to how everything is happening and very much see the bigger picture, not just from a personal point of view but from the family's point of view. Meghan is not afraid of throwing in a hand grenade here and there, but there are no toys being thrown out of the pram now. Their view is, 'Let's get on and do it — we'll be where we need to be and we won't be where we don't need to be.'"
Another source close to Harry said that Harry was "solely focused on the Queen" and did not care about mending his relations with his brother. However, the relationship between the two is expected to sour further as the Duke of Sussex was devastated to find that the initials of his beloved grandmother had been stripped from the shoulder of his royal uniform. He was devastated to find that Prince Andrew still had them.
A friend told the newspaper, "He is heartbroken. To remove his grandmother’s initials feels very intentional." The ER initials are traditionally only worn by those "in service of the monarch" but they were removed from Harry’s uniform as he decided to step down from his royal duties and move to US in January 2020.