Queen Elizabeth has had enough. According to royal insiders, the Queen has directed Prince Charles to put a stop to the feud between Prince William and Prince Harry because she believes "it has overshadowed everything and is damaging the monarchy," according to a royal source.
"Her Majesty very much wants her grandsons to put whatever their personal differences are aside and come together for the sake of the family and the Crown," my source said. "The Queen has resisted getting involved up until now in hopes that William and Harry could rise above their petty differences. But seeing as that seems not to be the case, she has told the Prince of Wales in no uncertain terms to find a way to bring about an understanding between his sons and end all this right now."
Harry made headlines around the world earlier this month when he indirectly acknowledged that the reports of his estrangement from his brother are true in an interview with Tom Bradby for the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey. "Look, we are brothers. We will always be brothers. We are certainly on different paths at the moment, but I will always be there for him and, as I know, he will always be there for me," Harry told Bradby. "We don’t see each other as much as we used to because we are so busy, but I love him dearly and the majority of stuff is created out of nothing. As brothers, you have good days, you have bad days.”
As an insider noted to me, "The Duke of Sussex could have put a stop to those reports about a falling-out with the Duke of Cambridge right then and there, but he chose not to. His words added fuel to the fire."
In doing so, Harry broke the royals' cardinal rule of "never complain, never explain."
My source said the Queen was aware of the documentary but reportedly was not told in advance that the broadcast would also include comments from Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, about any negativity they feel about their lives within the royal family.
Express reported that Charles was "absolutely furious" about Harry's public comments about his relationship with William and his admission that he was frustrated with life as a member of the royal family.
While the Palace allowed sources to publicly acknowledge that William was "worried" about Harry and Meghan's emotional state after the interview aired, privately "there was a lot of anger that this had the makings of a disaster not seen since Princess Diana went public with her grievances on that Panorama interview," my source said.
The situation was made infinitely worse when, just days after the ITV interviewed aired, a source close to Harry and Meghan told CNN that the couple had "single-handedly modernized the monarchy" and were not getting the proper support or recognition. Rather than address or refute the claim, the couple's press office declined comment.
"That did not sit well at all with Her Majesty or the Prince of Wales, who has gone out of his way to be supportive of Harry and Meghan," a royal insider revealed. Charles is also "deeply disappointed" because "with all the attention being paid to the supposed feud between the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex and the Duchess's claims that no one has inquired about her state of mind, the Prince of Wales' recent overseas tour as well as the new documentary about his life's work were all but ignored." (Charles recently made an official trip to Japan, and the second installment of his two-part documentary, Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall, airs on Oct. 31 at 9 p.m. on ITV.)
Another royal source summed up Charles' reaction to Harry's comments in The Sun, saying, "This whole kerfuffle has completely undermined the work he is doing... To do it to your brother is one thing. To do it to your father and paymaster is a completely different matter altogether.”
Ironically, it's Harry’s marriage to Meghan that allegedly strengthened his relationship with his father. The couple reportedly spent a lot of time with Charles in Scotland before their wedding and postponed their honeymoon to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace to mark Charles' 70th birthday where Harry delivered touching remarks about his father.
All eyes will be on Harry and Meghan and William and Kate Middelton on November 10th, Remembrance Sunday, when the family comes together to pay tribute to the citizens of Britain who lost their lives in service to their country. It will the first time all the senior royals will appear together since Harry and Meghan's ITV documentary aired. Charles will be laying a wreath on behalf of the Queen.
"The hope is that the family will present a united front at this very somber occasion," said the insider. "Her Majesty supports both her grandsons and expects the Prince of Wales can sort this out with William and Harry. They have to be made to realize their actions have great consequence on the future of the family and the country." And for more on tough moments for the monarchs, here are Prince Charles' Most Controversial Moments That You've Forgotten About.
Diane Clehane is a New York-based journalist and author of Imagining Diana and Diana: The Secrets of Her Style.
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