S Poddar
The relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, on one side, and Prince William and Kate Middleton on the other, was strained at best. However, there is hardly any hope for their reconciliation now. But a new royal biography says that upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II, William and Kate did extend a small but meaningful gesture toward the estranged couple.
The days that followed the Queen’s death became emotional for the Royal Family, united in Buckingham Palace to pay tributes to their late monarch. All eyes had been on the two couples whose tense relationship had been under public scrutiny since Harry and Meghan stepped back from their royal duties. It was into this funereal atmosphere that William and Kate made their quietly discreet invitation to Harry and Meghan, writes Robert Hardman in his book, Charles III: New King, New Court.
The members of the Roy-al Family had all gathered at Buckingham Palace to receive the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, and some were preparing for an informal supper when the Prince and Princess of Wales made their discreet invitation to the Sussexes. That tension was palpable, though. William and Kate offered something that would certainly have been applauded by the late Queen—a request for Harry and Meghan to attach their car to the police escort taking the Waleses back to Windsor. The gesture was small but could be taken as something of an olive branch.
Though certainly not indicative of any larger reconciliation, this act does capture the complex dynamics within the Royal Family. It wasn’t about sharing a ride or rekindling some sort of bond; it was quite literally just a simple acknowledgement that, despite all their differences, they were all headed in the same direction. In such a time of mourning and contemplation, one small act of consideration could be grasped at as a reminder to deep, albeit fractured, familial ties binding them together.
These were ratcheted up by the explosive Netflix docuseries by Harry and Meghan, launching only several months after the demise of the Queen. Both William and King Charles were targeted in it as Harry alleged to the world his brother had screamed and shouted during a high-profile summit, and, well, went further to say his father had lied to him. The accusations further deepened the divide, making the gesture from William and Kate at Buckingham Palace all the more significant.
Friends of the Royal Family have revealed that Harry’s comments, which seemingly targeted Kate, were very hurtful to William. In the first episode of the Netflix series, Harry made a comment about the pressures of the Royal Family, saying that some members, particularly the men, felt that they had to marry somebody more in the image of the royal stage rather than whom they loved. While the palace insisted it was all about extending the family and not, as it was largely interpreted, a dig at William and his marriage to Kate, sources close to the family said such statements were a “stab in the back.”
Matters went from bad to worse with the publication of Harry’s no-holds-barred memoir, Spare, in which he shared such intimate details as that he had “fallen out with Kate and William and the in-laws”. He spoke of how Kate had supposedly “grimaced” when Meghan had used her lip gloss and related another disagreement that followed Meghan’s remark that Kate was suffering from “baby brain” after Prince Louis’s birth. The disclosures, unnecessary to many and deeply personal, fanned the flames of an already blazing fire between the two couples.
Against the backdrop of all of these adversities, that small gesture by William and Kate during those difficult days at Buckingham Palace was a powerful moment. It is a reminder that even in deep discord, there are always moments to empathize and connect with each other. It was certainly not a reconciliatory step toward greater understanding, but a moment of humanness within a period of sadness.
The world waits with bated interest as the Royal Family continues to find its way through these complex relationships, looking for signs of healing. How or whether such gestures may thaw the icy relations between the Sussexes and the Waleses remains to be seen; at present, they stand as proof of that which binds them—enduring but strained.
