Prince William’s sadness over broken bond with Harry

The Duke of Cambridge has voiced sorrow the royal family is no longer a ‘team’.

William and Harry with Meghan and Kate at Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day in 2018. Picture: Getty Images

The Duke of Cambridge has ­spoken of his “sadness” at the ­broken bond with his brother and voiced sorrow the royal family is no longer a “team”.

As the Queen called emergency peace talks on Monday night (AEDT) at Sandringham to end the Windsors’ civil war, Prince William has said he feels sorrow that he and Prince Harry are now “separate entities” and expressed hope they might pull together again in future.

“I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives and I can’t do that any more; we’re separate entities,” he told a friend.

“I’m sad about that. All we can do, and all I can do, is try and support them and hope that the time comes when we’re all singing from the same page. I want everyone to play on the team.”

The comments lay bare the tensions at the heart of the royal household as it was announced that the Queen has summoned Princes Charles, William and Harry to the “Sandringham summit” to thrash out their differences. Meghan will dial in via a conference call from Canada, where she travelled on Friday.

It will be the first time the family has met since Harry and Meg­han’s bombshell last week that the couple want to step down as senior royals, become “financially independent” and divide their time between Britain and North America.

A photo released by Prince Harry of Meghan at The Hubb Community Kitchen, which was formed in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster. Picture: Instagram @sussexroyal

Courtiers and government officials have drawn up proposals covering a “range of possibilities” for the Queen, Charles, William and Harry to review. They include:

● How much “official” royal work Harry and Meghan will do in Britain and overseas on behalf of the royal family and the government;

● Harry and Meghan’s HRH titles, and how they will be styled;

● How much money they might receive from the Queen and the Prince of Wales, once their sovereign grant public funding is cut; and

● What commercial deals the couple might be allowed to strike.

Tom Bradby, who did the recent ITV interview in which Harry and Meghan confessed their sense of isolation, has warned that failure to keep the pair on side could lead the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to do a “no-holds-barred” interview that could damage the monarchy further.

“I have some idea of what might be aired in a full, no-holds-barred sit down interview and I don’t think it would be pretty,” he wrote in The Sunday Times.

Bradby does not say what concerns they might voice, but courtiers fear she would brand the royal household racist and sexist.

Royal aides said making changes to the Sussexes’ future roles required “complex and thoughtful” discussions, but the “next steps” would be agreed at Monday’s meeting. It is still the Queen’s wish to move “at pace’’ for the situation to be resolved within “days, not weeks”.

A concrete plan is expected to be agreed and publicly announced this week, but after the couple’s rushed statement last Wednesday, issued without the Queen’s knowledge, royal sources insisted there was now a “genuine understanding” from all involved that any changes to the Sussexes’ roles would “take time to implement”.

The prince is due to make his first public appearance since renouncing his senior royal role on Thursday, when he will host the Rugby League World Cup 2021 draws for the wheelchair tournaments, at Buckingham Palace.

Royal aides dismissed reports he has no other official engagements in his diary as ­“incorrect”.

In a sign of how complex politics behind palace walls have become, Fiona Mcilwham, Harry and Meghan’s new private secretary and a highly experienced diplomat who joined their team from Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, last week joked to colleagues during the discussions: “I was offered the Iran desk (at the FCO). That might have been easier.”

The Sunday Times