Reconciliation between Harry and William on the cards at new Diana memorial

Prince Harry still hopes to be reconciled with his brother at the unveiling of a memorial of their mother this year despite his incendiary criticism of the royal family.

A stony faced Harry with William, Meghan, far right, Kate, Prince Charles and Camilla at the Commonwealth Service in London, a year ago. Picture: AFP

Prince Harry still hopes to be reconciled with his brother at the unveiling of a memorial of their mother this year despite his incendiary criticism of the royal family.

The statue of Princess Diana, commissioned by the princes, was scheduled to be unveiled at Kensington Palace on July 1, which would have been her 60th birthday.

“Both brothers are very committed to the statue,” said a friend after the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey. “The depth of feeling and the commitment to honour their mother transcends any difficulties caused by the interview.”

The princes have not been seen together since an uncomfortable encounter last March at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey.

The rift between the brothers was laid bare when Harry told an ITV documentary in 2019 that he and William, who had been his best man at his wedding the previous year, were on “different paths” and had good and bad days in their relationship.

Harry signalled during the ­interview with Winfrey his wish for a reconciliation, saying “time heals all things, hopefully”. He added: “I love William to bits, he’s my brother, we’ve been through hell together, we have a shared ­experience, but we were on different paths.”

The statue of their mother was commissioned from Ian Rank-Broadley, a sculptor from Gloucestershire whose portrait of the Queen is on coins. It was meant to have been installed in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace in 2019 but at the time the princes were barely on speaking terms.

Plans for the unveiling this northern summer have not been finalised because of the travel ­restrictions during the pandemic and Meghan’s pregnancy. Harry’s attendance at the Duke of Edinburgh’s 100th birthday on June 10 or Trooping of the Colour on June 12 seem unlikely.

William and Harry, who were aged 15 and 12 when their mother died after a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, are expected to ­attend the unveiling ceremony without their wives, reducing the potential for conflict.

Meghan pushed back during the interview against the narrative of her and Kate as clashing visions of a modern princess. “If you love me you don’t have to hate her. If you love her you don’t have to hate me,” she told Winfrey.

Meghan said that her experiences of dealing with the press were different from those of the Duchess of Cambridge.

“Kate was called ‘Waity Katie’ waiting to marry William. While I imagine that was really hard — and I do, I can’t picture what that felt like — this is not the same.

“If a member of his (Harry’s) family would comfortably say, ‘We’ve all had to deal with things that are rude’, rude and racist are not the same.”

The Times