The long rift between Prince William and Prince Harry looks, from the outside, like a story that started when Meghan Markle came into the picture, but a royal author claims that is not the case. Christopher Andersen traces the tension all the way back to the Princes’ childhood, and to the back seat of a car. Now, the grievances may look new, but the fault line was allegedly there from the start, and so far, nothing has been strong enough to bridge it.
Prince William and Prince Harry’s relationship faced ‘damage’ long before Meghan Markle’s arrival, claims author
Speaking exclusively to Page Six, royal author Christopher Andersen pointed to Prince William and Harry’s childhood, noting, “People didn’t really acknowledge the fact that there was all this tension between Harry and William ever since they were small children, wrestling in the back of the car.”
Andersen, whose new book is “KATE! The Courage, Grace, and Power of the Woman Who Will Be Queen,” claimed that it was “made very clear” to the Duke of Sussex that “he was lesser than.” And that dynamic allegedly “left a real mark on them and really kind of doomed their relationship, ultimately.”
Harry put the imbalance on paper in his memoir “Spare,” where he described how William got a far more generous living space at Kensington Palace while also claiming that the Prince of Wales “appeared supremely irritated” when he first heard about the Invictus Games idea. In the book, Harry blamed the reaction on a deep “rivalry” between them. Now, the brothers have reportedly not spoken in several years.
However, Andersen claimed that Kate Middleton kept trying to close the gap, including at Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021, when she stepped away deliberately when Harry joined his brother to give the brothers a moment alone. Andersen noted, “She wanted them to make amends,” even though those efforts did not eventually stick. And now, the distance between Prince William and Prince Harry runs deep.
