A painful excerpt from Prince Harry’s memoir details the difficult time he had trying to get through to William and King Charles about his life with Meghan Markle while at Prince Philip’s funeral.
On what would have been his 103rd birthday, we are reflecting on a moment from Prince Philip’s funeral which would go on to be recognized as a pivotal juncture in shaping the royal family into how it looks now in 2024. Delving back into Prince Harry‘s memoir, Spare, the cracks in the relationship between Princess Diana‘s youngest son and William and King Charles looked plainly obvious in 2021 – and a strikingly awkward conversation between the trio appeared to set the tone for the following three years of discomfort within the family.
Prince Harry approached William and King Charles at Prince Philip’s funeral
Clearly looking to set the honest tone for his autobiography early, Prince Harry wasted no time in addressing his exit from royal duty in his 2023 memoir.
Having resigned from official royal work in January 2020, Harry flew home to Windsor from his US residence with Meghan Markle to attend his grandfather’s funeral in 2020.
With Meghan pregnant with their second child, and COVID restrictions still in place, Harry traveled alone – and prepared himself for a difficult conversation with his brother and father.
Though Harry noted that he had flown “specifically and solely” for the funeral, the stateside prince sought out a “secret” meeting with Harry and Charles, in search of a conversation “about the state of things” to try and resolve the obvious tension in the air following his well-documented exit.
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Harry recalls the ‘painfully tepid’ moment he failed to get through to his brother and father
While waiting on a garden path in the royal grounds, Harry recalled the daunting moment he saw his two remaining immediate family members making their way toward him.
“Then, at last, I saw them. Shoulder to shoulder, striding towards me, they looked grim, almost menacing”, wrote Harry. “More, they look tightly aligned… they appeared to be in lockstep – in league.” The trio proceeded to say hello to each other using single-word greetings, in an exchange Harry described as “painfully tepid.”
After a typically British offering of small talk and niceties, the three royals “got down to business” – only for Harry to realize that smoothing over may be more difficult than he had hoped.
The Prince of Wales described how his cousins were inside, drinking and sharing stories about the late Philip – highlighting just how important it was for him to have this conversation, rather than take part in typical funeral festivities.
“I’d vowed not to let this encounter resolve into another argument,” explained the California resident. “But I’d quickly discovered that it wasn’t up to me. Pa and Willy had their parts to play, and they’d come ready for a fight.”
From then on, tensions only rose higher, wrote Harry. “Every time I ventured a new explanation, started a new line of thought, one or both of them would cut me off… it got so heated Pa raised his hands. Enough!”
Ultimately, Harry’s retelling of the conversation came down to a frank exchange with his brother, which left neither of them any further forward about what was happening in Harry’s life.
“Willy, this was supposed to be our home”, explained Harry to William, “We were going to live here the rest of our lives.”
According to the memoir, William responded rather cuttingly, replying: “You left, Harold.”
Harry proceeded to tell William that he knew why he had left, only for William to claim that he didn’t – leaving Harry exacerbated by just how far he and his elder brother had come.
With the pair having not been spotted in the same room as one another in over a year, things have gotten to the point where wedding hosts reportedly can’t even bring themselves to invite both brothers out of fear they both turn up – suggesting that Philip’s funeral was most likely one of the last honest exchanges between Harry and William that we’ll hear of for a while.
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