Prince Harry’s visit to Britain last week for a series of charity appearances brought him back to the same country as his older brother, Prince William, the heir
to the throne.

But as the younger prince’s trip home drew to a close without a meeting or joint appearance, the siblings seemed as far apart as ever.

On Friday, Harry, 41, played pickleball and wheelchair rugby in Birmingham, in central England, to promote the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games, a charity sports event that he founded for wounded veterans. About 115 miles (185km) away, William, 44, was taking part in a charity polo competition in Windsor, outside London.

Later that day, Harry; his wife, Meghan; and their two children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, were reunited with King Charles III and Queen Camilla for the first time in years, at Highgrove House. The long-anticipated gathering – which included the king’s spending time with two young grandchildren who he barely sees – appeared in sharp contrast to the continued estrangement of the two brothers.

A spokesperson for Harry declined to comment, and Kensington Palace, which represents William, did not respond to requests for comment.

Richard Fitzwilliams, a British royal commentator, said, “It is all very sad because both of them are part of the rich tapestry of British life.

“And of course Harry has chosen to go to the United States, but this really underlines things,” he added. “You can’t help wondering, what’s it going to be like in 10 years or 20 years or 30 years?”

The siblings’ rift has already lasted years, since Harry and Meghan renounced their most exclusive royal titles and moved to the United States in 2020. Harry’s very public complaints about the monarchy – including in an Oprah Winfrey interview; in his tell-all memoir, Spare; and in a documentary series – left deep scars and resentment in the royal family.

Harry, Meghan and their children now live in California. The family had been expected to travel together to London, but Harry’s team said that security concerns upended those plans at the last minute, meaning that Meghan and the children joined him only for the second part of the trip. They have not travelled to Britain together since the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in June 2022. The last time Meghan appeared publicly in the country was at Elizabeth’s funeral later that year.

Before Harry’s withdrawal from royal duties, he was viewed as close to William, if different in terms of character and interests. Both were forced to grow up in the unending scrutiny of the public eye after their mother, Princess Diana, died in a Paris car crash in 1997. The world watched as William, then 15, and Harry, then 12, had their grief laid bare as they walked for a mile through sobbing crowds behind a horse-drawn carriage holding their mother’s coffin.

Harry later recounted the trauma he experienced at the time and his anger at the tabloid press that had hounded his mother. William has been more reserved in his public statements, tending to abide by the “never complain, never explain” mantra that is often associated with the British royals.

By exposing the private frustrations and fractures inside the family, Harry put himself publicly at odds with his brother. In his memoir, he even accused William of knocking him to the floor during an argument. Kensington Palace has long refused to comment on that accusation.

During his 2023 book tour, Harry told broadcaster Anderson Cooper that he and William were no longer speaking but added, “I look forward to us being able to find peace.”

That peace appears to be much closer in the relationship between Harry and his father, who received a cancer diagnosis in 2024. Even before this week’s reunion at Highgrove, Harry and Charles had made strides toward repairing their relationship, including at a meeting in London last year.

While the early part of Harry’s trip was overshadowed by his defeat in a lawsuit against the publisher of The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, he seemed at ease in Birmingham on Friday, joking with the athletes and giving a live interview to a morning TV show in which he made a few warm references to his children.

A few hours’ drive away, William was in the saddle, taking part in the annual Royal Charity Polo Cup to raise money for charity, while his wife, Catherine, watched from the sidelines.

Fitzwilliams said that polo in particular was identified with both princes because the sport had long served as a “sort of a male rite of passage” in the House of Windsor. Both brothers have played countless matches, sometimes alongside each other, sometimes on opposing sides.

It was after a joint appearance at a charity polo event in 2019 that rumours of a rift between Harry and Meghan, on one side, and William and Catherine, on the other, went into overdrive. Images of the couples were picked apart in the tabloid press.

Despite there now being a clear chasm in the brothers’ relationship, some still hope for a future reconciliation. Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former private secretary to both princes, said in a recent interview with The Times of London that he was a “perennial optimist” when asked whether William and Harry might repair their relationship.

Harry wrote fondly of Lowther-Pinkerton in his memoir, Spare, despite his overall distaste of the people he has called “the men in grey suits”, borrowing the phrase made famous by his mother to describe the influential, unelected courtiers and advisers who operate behind the scenes at the palace.

William and Harry’s personal lives have long been fodder for the world’s fascination. To a royals-obsessed news media, they provide almost perfect antagonists – the dutiful elder brother and heir to the throne versus the wilder younger brother who abandoned royal life.

Royals have often been pitted against each other by the media, said Arianne Chernock, an associate professor of history at Boston University and an expert in the modern British monarchy. Even Queen Elizabeth was compared with her younger, more playful-seeming sister, Margaret, Chernock noted.

“We almost invent these foils, even if they don’t exist, and again, because we’re looking for this drama, we expect this drama from them,” Chernock added. “And we kind of almost demand it sometimes.”

Still, she said, some people feel ownership or protectiveness over the two princes, devouring any hint of royal family drama the way they would a twist in a reality TV show or soap opera.

“There’s this jarring, unedited version that sometimes gets out into the public, and I think we’re seeing a particularly strong version of that right now,” Chernock said. “But they’re also real people, and this is their life.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Megan Specia

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