The response from Harry was a brusque and offended push-back – and after several more peppery reactions, William turned to his uncle Charles Spencer for help. From time to time Diana’s younger brother had played something of an honorary godfather to both boys in the years since the death of their mother, and he agreed with William to see what he could do.
The result of the Spencer intervention was an even more bitter explosion. Once again Harry refused to slow down. He didn’t blame his uncle. He understood why Diana’s brother should want to help. Yet he was furious with his elder brother for dragging other family members into the row. The fraternal fissure became established. There would be patch-ups and reconciliations, especially when a public show of unity was required. But that anger and mistrust – that distance – has lasted to the present day.
Looking at the once-fond friendship and now-sad feud between Harry and William – with its echoes in previous generations of the sisters Margaret and Elizabeth and then the brothers Andrew and Charles – we find ourselves faced for a third time in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II with a personal and emotional souring between heir and ‘spare’. The pattern is always the same. Childhood closeness and naïve fondness are changed to adult alienation by the functional difference between the pair, since the moment inevitably arises when, for one reason or another, the elder sibling feels they must pull rank.
Personalities also play their role, however – and here we move to less solid ground, for some accounts of the showdown between William and Harry play up questions about Meghan’s character. The older brother could sense, it is alleged, and did not trust the ambition of this American over-achiever.
‘William told his brother they knew nothing about her background, her intentions, what she was really like,’ according to Emily Andrews in the Sun.
Not surprisingly, this questioning of Meghan’s personal reliability has never been confirmed by either of the only two people who can possibly know what was really said in that brotherly confrontation. Friends have pushed William to give chapter and verse. Surely he had his doubts from the start about this loud and elbow-y female nicknamed ‘Me-gain’ by critical palace staff and the way that Harry had been transformed into a different person by her touch?
But William has always refused to be drawn. Brotherly loyalty endures. One close friend pressed him hard on the subject and could get nowhere.
‘All he would say in his stuttery way was, “Harry has gone too fast on this.”’
At the end of February 2018, William, Kate, Harry and Meghan appeared on stage together for the first time to launch their Royal Foundation Forum. The newspapers hailed them as the ‘Fab Four’. Harry and Meghan were now ‘official’ because they had got engaged three months earlier and were due to marry in three months’ time.
The Royal Foundation was the joint charity arm that Diana’s two sons had established in 2011 to co-ordinate their mother’s legacy and their charitable work for their three core causes – veterans, child development and conservation. Over the years these had extended to a fourth objective, mental health, and Meghan was keen to add her feminist dimension to the work. Harry welcomed her to the group.
‘I’m personally incredibly proud and excited,’ he said, ‘that my soon-to-be wife, who is equally passionate about seeing positive change in the world, will soon be joining us with this work.’
William then welcomed Meghan to the family in a more official fashion, adding how ‘delighted’ he was for her to be joining the team, and Kate backed her husband up with a round of personal applause.
What good actors they all were …
‘Working together as a family,’ came a question, ‘do you ever have disagreements about things?’
Cue nervous laughter. The two women looked at the ground saying nothing, using their hair to hide their faces – and their true emotions, presumably. Harry held on to Meghan for some mutual support. It was William who said quite directly, ‘Oh, yes’ – inspiring his brother to make a joke. There were so many clashes, said Harry, that ‘they come so thick and fast’.
Had these disagreements been ‘resolved’? the questioner persisted. To which William replied facetiously, ‘We don’t know!’
The way the quartet laughingly handled this hiccup seemed to augur rather well for their future as a team.
‘I think it’s really good we’ve got four different personalities,’ said Harry. ‘We’ve all got that same passion to want to make a difference … Working as a family does have its challenges, of course it does … But we’re stuck together for the rest of our lives.’
That sounds like quite a long-term commitment, Harry.
It was announced that Meghan would become a fourth trustee, and she expressed the hope that the foundation might extend its support to the women’s empowerment movement that was developing in the US from the recent Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandals.
‘Right now,’ said Meghan, ‘with so many campaigns like #MeToo and #TimesUp, there’s no better time to continue to shine a light on women feeling empowered and people supporting them.’
Everybody nodded approvingly. Yet no one – neither on the stage, nor in the audience, nor even in the attentive and critical press pack – appeared to realise quite how revolutionary was this suggestion that the new recruit was making. Created in America only the previous month and linked to #MeToo, #TimesUp was a $13 million legal defence fund seeking legislation to discipline and punish companies that tolerated sexual harassment.
Legislation meant politics – and in royal terms politics was simply taboo. It was a total no-no for
