The relationship between Prince Harry and Prince William, which has steadily worsened since Harry started dating Meghan Markle in 2016, is likely to hit a new nadir in 2022.
There are a number of reasons for this, but the most ominous cloud on the horizon for William (and indeed, the rest of the royal family) is undoubtedly the publication of Harry’s memoir, scheduled to appear next fall, and previously described to The Daily Beast as “the stuff of nightmares” for the royals.
Penguin Random House are rumored to have paid some $20 million for the tome. For that price, publishing sources say, it is unimaginable the book will not contain major bombshells.
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“The word is that almost the entirety of the book was seen by Penguin before they bought it,” said a source, “There is no way they would have paid that kind of money for a glorified self-help book. It will be explosive.”
Harry’s brother’s sense of betrayal at this ultimate royal cash-in is likely to be acute. William, as is well known, is enormously protective about his family’s privacy. To have it breached by hateful, phone-hacking tabloid journalists is one thing; the prospect of it being violated by your brother is quite another.
The contents of the book are of course top secret. Harry’s only public comment so far has been to say: “I’m writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become… I’m excited for people to read a firsthand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”
Speculation is rife that it will see Harry double down on criticism of his family, including William and Kate, whom the Sussexes seemed very pointedly to include in the blanket accusations made in their Oprah interview of the family not supporting them during their troubled royal life.
Harry specifically said William was “trapped” in the system of monarchy, while Meghan said Kate made her cry during a bridesmaid fitting and then failed to correct what she said were lies about the incident that were subsequently published in British newspapers.
The royal biographer Penny Junor told The Daily Beast: “The feeling is that there is a bit of a loose cannon out there. The book will be his story, but it will touch on other people’s lives; he will talk about his father, his mother, his step-mother and his brother William. And this is not just a normal brother, this is the future king. Whatever Harry says, it is not going to help relations with William. It doesn’t look to me as if this feud is going to be resolved anytime soon.”
The irritation over Harry’s explicit betrayal of the royal omertà is being compounded by the fact that the book threatens to overshadow the platinum jubilee celebrations taking place next year to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne.
One sliver of consolation is that the book is not due out till the fall, long after the big holiday weekend in London in June.
But these keynote celebrations of the platinum jubilee, of course, present their own dilemma, namely: Will Harry and Meghan get to stand on the balcony next to the queen? It’s a difficult decision for Her Majesty and Prince Charles. Putting them up there risks looking phony; not putting them up there reinforces the narrative of a vindictive, warring family.
Christopher Andersen, bestselling author of the book Brothers and Wives, thinks even if the gesture were made, it wouldn’t meaningfully move things along in terms of patching up the feud: “Whether or not Harry and Meghan are on the Buckingham Palace balcony gazing up at the traditional RAF flyover, I doubt if anyone is going to be willing to bend—and that’s what’s needed for some sort of reconciliation. I don’t expect to hear the royals singing ‘Kumbaya’ this year or next.”
The irony is that both sides actually have a vested interest beyond mere family harmony in repairing the fractured relationship.
For the royals, a pervasive stench of racism surrounds their treatment of Meghan and her children. Excluding them from the balcony appearance would be to invite further speculation as to the extent of the racism that many suspect is really at the core of this family fall-out.
And for Meghan and Harry, who have as yet not auteured any compelling content in their new roles as executive producers at Netflix, their association with the royal family is still the key to their commercial attraction.
Being the rebellious dissenters is one thing, but being cast out entirely by the royals might make the next streaming giant or ethical investment firm or workplace mental health app think twice about inking a big money deal with them.
The specter hanging over Meghan and Harry, of course, is that of Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936 after just a few months on the throne, and was thereafter consigned to a life of irrelevance. A case could be made that Harry and Meghan’s astonishing activism and popularity in the U.S. will save them from such a fate, but in Britain, where the couple are much more disliked, there is a real sense of grievance at Harry’s ongoing attacks on what is still a largely revered institution.
But it is the quotidian tragedy of the fractured fraternal relationship that continues to cut through, and continues to damage the reputations of both William and Harry, whose suffering as children might have been assumed to forge an unbreakable bond.
As Andersen says: “I often think about what Diana would say about all that’s happened in the past year or so. She would be heartbroken, I’m convinced, about the rift between her boys. ‘William and Harry are my revenge,’ she used to say, meaning that no matter what happened to her, Harry and William would stand shoulder-to-shoulder on that balcony, carrying the monarchy into the future. Now it looks as if that will never happen.”
