Prince William is said to be “worried” about his brother Prince Harry after the screening of a bombshell documentary last night in which he admitted to a rift between himself and William.
Quoting a “palace source,” the BBC added that William was hoping Harry and Meghan “are all right.”
The source added that there are concerns in the palace that the couple are “in a fragile place.”
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Meanwhile, Buckingham and Kensington Palaces have gone into damage limitation mode, after Meghan revealed that “not many people have asked” if she is OK, with sources telling the Evening Standard that senior royals have “gone out of their way” to help Meghan.
The royal family would be particularly sensitive to criticism that Meghan was feeling isolated within the royal family, as Princess Diana made the same criticism.
One palace source told the Standard: “I know that the Prince of Wales has several times reached out to Meghan. They get on and share a love of music too. I know he invited her to a preview of an exhibition at the palace.
“The Queen has been a source of strength too and invited them both to Balmoral where family problems are usually aired.”
Whatever the truth of these overtures to Meghan, it appears that the film was made without consultation with senior courtiers, the queen, Charles or Prince William.
In the documentary, Harry spoke about the need for “management,” of his own mental health problems, and implied that he was struggling in this regard, saying, “I thought I was out of the woods and suddenly it all came back.”
Harry has previously spoken about how his life descended into “chaos” as a result, he believes, of failing to properly process the death of his mother.
The Daily Beast has reached out for comment to the offices of William and Harry, Kate and William and the Queen but all have so far declined to comment on the extraordinarily candid film, which screened Sunday evening in the U.K. and is due to go out on Wednesday in the US.
The film, made by Harry’s old friend, the journalist Tom Bradby, followed the Sussexes on their tour of southern Africa earlier this month.
In candid interviews, the couple both said they were struggling with intense scrutiny from the British tabloid press.
In addition to saying he had “bad days” with his brother, Harry also said that the flashes of cameras caused him to flashback to the worst moments of his mother’s life and said his own mental health had suffered a setback of late, while Meghan revealed that her friends had warned her not to marry her husband, whom she calls “H”, because tabloids would “destroy” her life.
She fought back tears as she confirmed she was “not doing OK,” and said that those who envied her life of wealth and fame had “no idea” and were simply falling into the trap of thinking the “grass is greener.”
It has been a long time, of course, since a senior royal has gone rogue in such spectacular fashion and today there was much discussion about how the palace might seek to reign in Meghan and Harry.
The suggestion that the couple’s mental state might be “fragile” will feed into speculation that a widely reported but unconfirmed six-week break from royal duties is as much an enforced mental health break for Harry and Meghan as anything else.
It is also feeding debate on what life Harry and Meghan want—one within the royal family, or one detached from it.
Harry’s furious diatribe against the media prompted a fascinating response from the BBC’s royal correspondent Jonny Dymond, who accused Harry in a podcast broadcast a few weeks ago of “sanctimony” and said, “He can’t bear the media...he hates us...As he walks past us he will scowl at us... he will turn shoulder away from the cameras to deny them a shot... he just can’t bear the sight of us, it is painfully obvious.”
However there was more sympathy from other quarters with some observers saying the palace risked repeating with Meghan the mistakes made in abandoning and not supporting Diana.
The writer Christopher Andersen, author of the best selling biography of William and Harry, Diana’s Boys, told The Daily Beast: “It was really such a poignant and totally revealing moment when Meghan told her interviewer, “Not many people ask if I’m OK.” It is precisely the same cry for help we heard from Diana time and time and time again.
“The obvious intrusions from the press are one thing, but Diana also complained bitterly about the demands from the Palace, the lack of any praise or positive feedback, the absence of empathy from the Royal Family and the infamous and largely anonymous “Men in Gray” who really run the monarchy.
“Even with the support of a loving husband—which Diana never had—Meghan is cracking, and it doesn’t surprise me. She was a young, talented, independent American career woman suddenly thrust into this position where she has to really toe the royal line.
“Her privacy is gone. Her ability to control her own life is gone. This, in turn, is having a devastating impact on the man who loves her but really is fairly powerless to do anything about their predicament.
“Now add to the marriage post-traumatic stress disorder regarding the paparazzi’s relentless pursuit of his mother, the flashbacks to her essentially being chased to her death in Paris. This is obviously putting enormous strain on the couple, and the one person Harry would logically turn to, William, is having none of it.
Anderson's royal sources have told him that William feels he and Kate have coped with the same pressures if not more—he is the heir, after all—“and that the Cambridges have no sympathy for Meghan’s behind-the-scenes complaints. And certainly, when it comes to their mother’s death, even to this day, William has his own demons to cope with.
“Still, this is all eerily reminiscent of the young Diana desperately reaching out for a little moral support, for a few words of praise, and getting nothing back.”
