Amid King Charles III's cancer diagnosis, reports have suggested that sources close to Prince Harry say the royal rebel is willing to return to Britain to "help out" with royal duties.
This led royal author Tom Quinn to share with an outlet: "I've spoken to a close friend of Charles who believes that even if the king wanted to accept Harry's offer, which he does not, he is not going to do it because William is appalled at the idea."
"To say that Harry and William are not on speaking terms is to underestimate the difficulty — daggers drawn would be a better description," he added.
Quinn continued: "William has advised his father not to allow Harry back — partly because he finds his brother so difficult but mainly because Harry has broken the royal code of silence so often in the past. Royal troublemakers and that's how Harry is seen by William, and to some extent, also by Charles — have traditionally been kept at arms’ length by the family."
"Look at Edward VIII after the abdication. It was made clear to him that he was not welcome in England because he might steal George VI's thunder," Quinn observed. "William, who is quiet and more fixed on his destiny and on adopting the never-explain-never-complain rule of his grandmother, does not want a glamorous, unstable brother around even temporarily — a brother who might at any time fly off the handle and write Spare II."
The Montecito Duke slammed his sibling multiple times in the tome, even going so far as bizarrely compare William's look with their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Harry also ragged on the future king's "balding head," as well.
"William would feel profoundly hurt, aggrieved. So that's not going to happen," veteran royal journalist Jennie Bond said of any possibility of a brotherly reunion where William reaches out first. "There's an element of not letting the little brother have his cake and eat it, isn't there? I think that he sort of shut that door and that's a kind of coping mechanism of sorts."
She continued: "I think there's been so much pain that he just has said, 'I actually can't handle that right now. I've got a heck of a lot on my plate. And now my wife has had this serious surgery, I can't do it.'"
Bond, who worked as the BBC's royal correspondent from 1989-2003, says she is "shocked" at how William and Harry's bond has been broken. After covering the drama of the then-Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, in the ‘90s — including the late princess' 1997 death — Bond had a front-row view of how close the brothers became as the 2000s progressed. That bond is not only broken, but according to one royal source, William "hates" Harry now.
Daily Mirror interviewed Quinn.
