Prince William’s Response to Harry’s Reunion Plea: Silence Says It All

Prince Harry and his older brother Prince William have not spoken in years. From the royal family’s side Harry’s exit from royal life and the claims he made afterward looked like a clear betrayal. Harry viewed the whole thing differently. Either way the split left the two sons of Princess Diana and King Charles locked in an icy standoff that has only grown colder with time.

When Harry and Meghan moved back to the UK over the summer some hoped it might open a door between the brothers and their families. Archie and Lilibet have three cousins in George, Charlotte and Louis they have barely met if they have met them at all. A reunion still looks distant. Their return was met with a letter from King Charles making it plain they were not being brought back into the working royal fold and could not use their royal titles.

Later reports suggested Prince William stood behind that letter because the future king wants nothing to do with his brother or Meghan. Last week Harry and Meghan appeared together in Nottingham for what many saw as something very close to an official royal outing. They made several stops and greeted people in a way that looked formal. According to a source who spoke to New Idea and was quoted by Express the Prince of Wales was furious.

“William could not believe what he was seeing. It was the final straw for him, it couldn’t have looked more like an official royal duty if it tried,” the source claimed. “It was as if they’d totally ignored Charles’ letter. William is furious about it.”

King Charles is said to have given his sons a deadline to make amends. Now Prince Harry has spoken out in a new GQ interview saying he wants to repair his relationships with both William and their father.

“Some people don’t want it to work out. I want it to work out. With everything else that’s going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile – that’s the key point,” Harry told the magazine.

He added that scars stick around forever but what matters is how you look at the past. “Letting go of the past, that’s something that I would encourage everybody to do.” Sibling disagreements and broken relationships between parents and children come up constantly with people he speaks to he said.

The interview was published while the royal family was on duty in Windsor welcoming the Sultan of Oman. A spokesperson for the Sussexes told the BBC the conversation was recorded in September and they had no say in when it would run. The spokesperson also said the line about some people not wanting it to work out was not a swipe at William or anyone else in the family.

Prince William is said to have no interest in reuniting with his brother now or in the future. Royal expert Tom Sykes told Page Six that the future king will respond in the most brutal way possible by saying nothing at all.

“Will William respond? I would be astonished if he responded publicly,” Sykes said. “He never does, and his silence is itself the response.”

Sykes added that the interview will not change anything for William even though it will frustrate him. “Being lectured in public about reconciliation by the person who has caused the problem is exactly what William finds so hard to forgive. Putting the onus on him through the pages of a magazine is not how you repair a relationship.”