Prince William’s 40th birthday is this week, June 21st. For the Duchess of Cambridge’s birthday, we were gifted with weeks of Kensington Palace-commissioned articles about how Kate is so amazing, normal, extraordinary, stylish, middle class, effortless and, most importantly, better than Meghan. For William’s birthday keenery, we’re hearing a surprising amount about… how much he hates his brother. Shocking! Rebecca English at the Daily Mail ran a lengthy KP-approved article (one in a series) about what William is like, what he’s feeling, and how he’s incandescent with rage. All of the quotes are from unnamed sources, likely William himself or staffers. This is Part 1: how William feels about Harry and Meghan.
Rock bottom with Harry: The biggest worry is the fractured bond with his brother, Prince Harry. Relations are still at ‘rock bottom’, friends tell me. ‘He alternates between grieving for what he has lost and feeling really, really angry about what his brother has done. He truly loves Harry and feels he has lost the only person, aside from his wife, who understood this strange life of theirs. But he believes there are things you just don’t do. And Harry has 100 per cent crossed that line.’
Whether William will ever “repair the bond” with Harry: One friend says, ‘That’s a hard question to answer. The truth is they have got to find some common ground again. But to do that both have to admit fault — and it’s pretty obvious that one of them is absolutely refusing to do that. William is also very principled and believes Harry has crossed a line. He’s thrown accusation after accusation, knowing that silence is the family’s only option because it doesn’t want to get dragged into a public slanging match. He sees how upset his father has been by it all, and it hurts.’
Allergic to drama: ‘William is absolutely allergic to drama, but Harry has ensured that the family laundry is being aired on a global scale. I think they will find themselves in a better position in the future, but not now. And too much water has gone under the bridge for things to ever go back to the way they were. Truthfully, William thinks Harry has been sucked into an alien world and there’s f*** all he can do about it. But he does want Harry to be happy, and if he stops throwing dust in their faces, then maybe he will find a way to forgive and forget.’
William is actually protective of Harry: ‘He’s actually always been very protective of Harry and has a very low tolerance of people being disrespectful about him, even now. I think he’ll keep the door open to him forever. In some ways, it’s not like any of this was a surprise. Harry always had concerns about life within the Royal Family. And in hindsight the pressure that was put on him and William, living and working together as some sort of dynamic duo, placed a massive strain on their relationship. They had no room to breathe. But Meghan complicated it. Harry had to pick a side — and there was only one side he was ever going to choose. But I also find it impossible to believe there is anything these two brothers could say about each other that means they will never find a way to repair things. They were too close and have been through too much together for that to happen.’
Mourning Baldemort: ‘The rift with his brother has been really hard on William,’ says one confidant. ‘It’s as if he is mourning the relationship he has lost. People don’t realise he sort of fathered Harry to a degree. He wasn’t just his brother, he was also a parent, always trying to pull Harry back from the brink. But make no mistake, he’s angry. He believes Harry has disrespected the Queen and their family.’
William is angry on Kate’s behalf: William does not just feel personally betrayed, he is angry for his wife who he believes was ‘massively disrespected’ by Meghan when she claimed in last year’s Oprah interview that it was Kate who made her cry in the run up to her wedding — not the other way around — and that Kate had brought her flowers to apologise. ‘It obviously never occurred [to Meghan] that they were a peace offering, not an apology,’ one insider insists. ‘Despite much provocation, both William and Catherine have tried to keep the peace more than anyone will ever realise.’
Why Kate didn’t go to the statue unveiling last year: I understand from multiple sources that when Harry flew over last July for the unveiling of a statute in memory of their late mother, Princess Diana, Kate had been due to attend to support her husband. But after much discussion between her and William, she gracefully pulled out at the eleventh hour as they were fearful of what reaction it would provoke in Montecito if Meghan, who remained in California, were to see Kate there.
Showbiz Meg: It is said that William never entirely got on with his sister-in-law: they are very different beasts and the prince found Meghan’s lifestyle ‘rather too showbiz’ for his taste, I am told.
“But to do that both have to admit fault — and it’s pretty obvious that one of them is absolutely refusing to do that.” Yes, William is refusing to admit fault. Or did I miss the part where William acknowledged that he crossed several lines in his unhinged smear campaign against his brother and sister-in-law? “William thinks Harry has been sucked into an alien world” – honestly, the entire family thinks that because what Harry has done is so alien to them. He chose his wife and children ahead of his privilege. He chose freedom and a passionate marriage of equals to chronic infidelity and playing the British media’s games.
As for the stuff about Meghan and Kate… wow. William’s mad that Meghan said Kate is a good person? William is mad that Meghan told the truth about how Kate made her cry? And the sh-t about the note… truly, they are terrified of Meghan’s receipts. And no, William and Kate have not tried to keep the peace. They (along with Jason Knauf) have done everything they can to destroy Harry and Meghan. The sh-t about why Kate didn’t go the statue unveiling is pretty interesting too, because the Middletons were publicly PANICKED about William telling Kate to stay the f–k home. William told Kate to stay home because he didn’t want her “keen peacemaker” bullsh-t to be the story. That was one of the moments when I really felt like William was done with Kate and her family.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
