Family Feud! A Timeline of Prince William and Prince Harry’s Royal Rift

December 2018

Christmas is supposed to be a merry time of year, but sometimes feelings can get in the way. Fans speculated something was up with Harry and his brother after a video surfaced showing William seemingly ignoring Meghan while they were on a walk together.

March 2019

A royal filmmaker spoke out about the family drama, claiming the tension was between the brothers. “It’s actually that William and Harry have had a rift. I think you know, look. All brothers fall out. All families fall out. Their fallout at the moment is becoming public,” Nick Bullen told Fox News.

“These are two boys who lost their mother [Princess Diana] at a really early age, and the fairy tale is that they are closer than ever, and need each other, and I think that’s probably true, but equally they are two grown men in their 30s, starting their own families, different wives, they are moving to different parts of the country, different duties.”

April 2019

The speculation continued around Easter, when another clip made its rounds on the internet. It appeared to show Harry and William not speaking to each other, even though they were at the same service.

June 2019

Around this time, it was revealed that Prince Harry and Meghan split from the royal foundation they set up with William and Kate.

“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will establish their own new charitable foundation with transitional operating support,” the statement read.

“In addition, both couples will continue to work together on projects in the future, including on The Foundation’s mental health program, Heads Together.”

July 2019

This summer, a source close to the royals told In Touch exclusively that Queen Elizabeth II “hoped that the arrival of Archie would bring her grandsons together.”

“The boys are both married and have families of their own so it’s only natural that they’ve drifted apart,” the insider added.

“There are still unresolved problems with Meghan — although William has accepted her into the family, her strong opinions have rubbed him and some of the other royals up the wrong way.”

October 2019

At last! Harry finally spoke about the feud rumors in an ITV documentary titled Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, which aired in the U.K. on October 20, 2019.

“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,” he said, addressing how “inevitably, stuff happens.”

January 2020

Harry and Megan surprised the world with the news they would be stepping back from their senior duties, which later seemed to further animosity with William and the royal family. “We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honor our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth and our patronages,” their announcement read. “This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.”

However, at the time, the brothers issued a statement denying a report that Harry and Meghan had been “bullied” out of the royal family.

March 2020

Everyone watched on as Harry, Meghan, William and Kate came face-to-face with each other for the first time in months to attend the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey. Some people felt the gathering appeared to be awkward for the four of them due to their body language.

May 2020

After Harry and Meghan left behind their life in the U.K. to move to California,  the brothers reportedly reconnected. Vanity Fair correspondent Katie said the siblings had done video calls together and more. “They have done a lot of family birthdays and I think with Prince Charles not being well, that really forced the brothers to pick up the phone and get back in touch,” she explained.

July 2020

Although William and Kate “respected” the couple’s “right” to a new life, they didn’t approve of “the way [Harry has] gone about it,” a source exclusively told In Touch at the time. “The Cambridges believe it’s down to the Sussexes to make an effort with the British people and spend more time in Harry’s home country.”

August 2020

The brothers shared a rare joint statement about a statue unveiling for their late mother, Princess Diana, which they both would be attending. “The statue was commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of her death and recognize her positive impact around the world,” it read. “The statue will be installed in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace on 1st July 2021, marking the Princess’s 60th birthday.”

January 2021

Over the holidays, Harry and William were said to have made an effort to stay in touch with each other to improve their relationship. They reportedly sent presents to their respective nieces and nephews and chatted via video to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve with their loved ones, despite the new distance between them. 

March 2021

Meghan and Harry sat down for a tell-all interview in a CBS primetime special, which aired on March 7, following their pregnancy No. 2 announcement in February. While talking about their controversial exit from royal life, the Duke of Sussex addressed where he stood with William. 

“Much will continue to be said about that,” Harry pointed out. “You know, as I’ve said before, I love William to bits. He’s my brother. We’ve been through hell together. I mean, we have a shared experience. But we — you know, we’re on — we’re on different paths. The relationship is space, at the moment. And, you know, time heals all things, hopefully.”

April 2021

William and Harry put their differences aside to attend Prince Philip’s funeral held at Windsor Castle. At the time, there was seemingly still a lot of animosity between the brothers. “William feels that Harry has gotten too big for his boots since moving to California — that success and Hollywood have gone to his head,” a source close to the family told Us Weekly. “He’s already accused [Harry] of putting fame over family after the big interview.”

June 2021

According to royal expert Robert Lacey, the duo was at odds during their grandfather Philip’s funeral in April. “They started quarreling again,” the author claimed in a new Daily Mail opinion piece. “The conflict between Diana’s two bitterly divided sons does not seem likely to end any time soon.”

On the bright side, William and Harry “are on the same page about keeping the peace at the unveiling of the Diana statue, and their inner circle is hoping that it’ll be an opportunity for the boys to reconnect in person on July 1,” an insider told In Touch exclusively. “But right now, William has zero interest in hanging out with Harry on a social level while he’s back. He can’t just forgive Harry for throwing the royals under the bus at the flick of a switch. Maybe he’ll feel differently when they come face-to-face and see each other in person, but it’s looking highly unlikely.”

The source added, “Not much about the unveiling of the statue has been released. All I know is that it’ll be a low-key day with a just a small handful of people attending. As the focus of the day will be on William and Harry’s tribute to their beloved late mother, they want to keep it personal.”

It won’t be long until Harry and William reunite at the unveiling of Diana’s new statue.

July 2021

The brothers were photographed socializing and even shared a few laughs while attending the memorial and statue unveiling for their late mother in England on July 1. An insider told Us Weekly the royal duo wanted to “make up” during the event.

“They didn’t mend the bond at the funeral,” the insider noted about Prince Phillip’s memorial service. “But since the baby, they want to move forward. Both brothers are ready to move past the rift and have a good relationship again.”

July 2021

The brothers’ relationship is reportedly on the mend following the ceremony. A separate insider told Us Weekly on July 6,“William and Harry spent the morning before the statue unveiling looking through old keepsakes, notes from Diana and bonding,” the source said. “They have absolutely turned a new page in their relationship and have started the healing. Everyone around them was thrilled to see how close they were on the day of the statue unveiling.”

June 2022

In June 2022, a source told Us Weekly that William “has not been in a good place” with Harry.

The brothers “hit rock bottom” after Harry and Meghan sat down for a tell-all interview in March 2021. The insider added that their relationship was reportedly “doomed” and “irreparable.”

The Duke of Cambridge “doesn’t know who [Harry] is anymore and the trust between them is strained,” especially after the royal family was “burned so many times” by the California resident’s criticism. “They’ll never recover from the damage that has been done,” the source said.

August 2022

During an interview with New York magazine’s The Cut published on August 29, Meghan slammed the royal family’s strict rules about releasing family photos and said it was one example of what made life as a royal so challenging. “There’s literally a structure by which if you want to release photos of your child, as a member of the family, you first have to give them to the Royal Rota,” she told the outlet.

The Royal Rota is the United Kingdom press pool that covers the royal family.

“Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?” the mother of two asked. “You tell me how that makes sense and then I’ll play that game.”

September 2022

A source exclusively described to In Touch how Harry’s relationship with the entire royal family was affected by Queen Elizabeth II’s passing.

“There’s strife between Harry and the royal family for announcing the queen’s passing before he arrived at Balmoral,” the insider explained in September 2022. “Emotions are running high right now, and Harry was hoping his family would wait.”

The source also pointed out that while viewers will “be seeing them unite in public,” there is still “underlying tension” among them “behind closed doors.”

December 2022

Harry gave insight into his and William’s ongoing rift during the Harry & Meghan docuseries on Netflix, noting that it was “terrifying” to have the Prince of Wales “scream and shout at me” over his and Meghan’s decision to leave the royal family.

“The saddest part of it was this wedge created between myself and my brother, so that he’s now on the institution’s side,” Harry shared. “Part of that I get, I understand, right, that’s his inheritance. So to some extent, it’s already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability and continuation of this institution.”

January 2023

Ahead of the January 10, 2023, release of his memoir Spare, Harry agreed to two television interviews – one with CBS’ 60 Minutes and Anderson Cooper, and the other with ITV and royal reporter Tom Bradby – shedding more light on his decision to leave the royal family and speak out against the institution. 

In a clip of the 60 Minutes interview ahead of its release, Harry reiterated that he tried to mend the rift with his family out of the public eye to no avail.

“And every singly time I tried to do it privately there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife,” Harry said in the teaser clip. “You know, the family motto is ‘Never complain, never explain.’ It’s just a motto.”

Further elaborating on the sentiment, Harry told ITV and Bradby, “I want a family, not an institution.”

January 2023

Harry accused William of physically assaulting him during an argument over Meghan in 2019.

In an excerpt from his memoir shared by The Guardian, Harry claimed that he got into a fight with his brother after William called Meghan “difficult,” “rude” and “abrasive.”

“He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor,” Harry wrote about the altercation. “I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”

January 2023

In another excerpt from the book, Harry detailed his fears that he would lose his relationship with William after he married Kate in 2011.

According to Us Weekly, the father of two called William and Kate’s wedding “yet another farewell under this horrid roof” and “another sundering.”

“The brother I’d escorted into Westminster Abbey that morning was gone — forever. Who could deny it?” he wrote. “He’d never again be first a foremost Willy. We’d never again ride together across the Lesotho countryside with capes blowing behind us. We’d never again share a horsey-smelling cottage while learning to fly. Who shall separate us? Life, that’s who.”

Harry went on to say that the “ceremony is mostly a blank in my mind” and admitted he doesn’t remember much about serving as his brother’s best man.

“And I recall Willy walking her back up the aisle, and as they disappeared through the door, into the carriage that would convey them to Buckingham Palace, into the eternal partnership they’d pledged, I recall thinking: Goodbye,” he recalled.

January 2023

Harry also recalled William poking fun at his mental health in Spare.

“I was an agoraphobe. Which was nearly impossible given my public role. After one speech, which couldn’t be avoided or canceled, and during which I’d nearly fainted, Willy came up to me backstage. Laughing,” the Duke of Sussex claimed in the memoir, according to Us Weekly. “‘Harold! Look at you! You’re drenched.’”

After noting he “couldn’t fathom” Harry’s reaction to his mental health, Harry added that William and Kate had been “present for my very first panic attack.”

“We were driving out to a polo match in Gloucestershire, in their Range Rover. I was in the back and Willy peered at me in the rearview. He saw me sweating, red-faced,” he wrote. “‘You all right, Harold?’ No, I wasn’t. It was a trip of several hours and every few miles I wanted to ask him to pull over so I could jump out and try to catch my breath.”

After calling William’s comments “insensitive,” Harry admitted he was also at “fault” for their crumbling relationship. “Both of us should’ve known better, should’ve recognized my crumbling emotional and mental states for what they were, because we’d just started to discuss the launching of a public campaign to raise awareness around mental health,” he said.

January 2023

During his interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, Harry revealed that he “currently” does not speak to his brother. “I look forward to us being able to find peace,” the duke added, noting that it’s been “a while” since they’ve spoken.

April 2023

William and Harry are not on speaking terms amid their ongoing feud.

“My understanding is there have been no discussions between Harry and William. That is absolutely radio silence,” the True Royalty TV editor-in-chief Nick Bullen told Us Weekly in April 2023. “It’s a very big void.”

May 3, 2023

Royal expert Omid Scobie shared an update about Harry’s relationships with William and Charles ahead of the king’s coronation on May 6, 2023.

“Obviously [the coronation] is the first time [Harry] sees his family face-to-face since the release of Spare,” Omid revealed on Britain’s This Morning on May 3. “But I don’t think people know there has been a somewhat regular pattern of conversation between him and his father since the release of that book.”

The ​Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family author continued, “Now have they discussed the details and the points that he wanted to go into? From what I hear, no. But he has had contact with his dad.”

May 6, 2023

Harry was in attendance at his father’s coronation on May 6, 2023, attending the event alone as Meghan stayed in California with their children. Though some royal watchers thought a reunion between the brothers would take place, William and harry kept their distance from one another, with body language guru Traci Brown telling Us Weekly that the dynamic between Harry and the family had not changed for the better.

“He hasn’t changed his mindset [toward the family] from anything that I’ve seen,” Traci explained. “He’s on the same page that he’s always been. I don’t see any improvements.”

May 10, 2023

In the aftermath of the coronation and the increasing hostility between the brothers, royal historian Gareth Russell told Us Weekly that while Harry was adamant that he deserved an apology from William and the royals, the members of the firm would not be conceding.

“Prince Harry feels very strongly he deserves an unequivocal apology,” Gareth said. “I don’t think the royal family … believe he deserves one.”

May 17, 2023

Harry and Meghan’s celebratory night in New York City came to a terrifying close when they were involved in a “near catastrophic” car chase.

“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers,” their spokesperson said of the couple’s experience leaving the Ms. Foundation’s 2023 Women of Vision Awards. “While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety. Dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all involved.”

And while the scary interactions with relentless photographers grasped international attention, the palace made it clear that they would not be addressing Harry and Meghan’s experience. “This is not something we’re commenting on,” the palace retorted in the aftermath.

June 2023

Yet another opportunity for reconciliation presented itself to Harry and William in June 2023, but the brothers did not act upon it. In fact, the annual Trooping the Colour event – marking King Charles III’s monarchal birthday – didn’t see Harry and Meghan invited at all. 

“I don’t think they need to be invited,” royal expert Gareth Russell told Us Weekly of the high profile event and the Sussexes’ exclusion. “Not as a kind of insult to them, but you know, it’s a long trip to make from California for the sake of Trooping the Colour. … I think this is one of the events where the Sussexes were never going to be invited.”

June 2023

While Harry didn’t venture to England for Trooping the Colour, he did cross the Atlantic to face Mirror Group Newspapers in court. A key part of a tabloid case against the publishing group, Harry got up on the stand and testified about the impact the members of the press and paparazzi had – and continue to have – on his personal life.

As many royal watchers know, the press offices within the respective royal households – Buckingham Palace, the Waleses’ team at Kensington Palace and so on – work closely with the tabloids and often pit royal press offices against each other. Speaking directly to that effect, Harry spoke about rumors disseminated about him and the damage such coverage has caused. Meanwhile, his father and brother were reportedly apprehensive of what the Duke of Sussex might say in court. 

“My sources tell me that [King Charles III] and [Prince William] were very wary about Harry going into the witness box,” royal expert Katie Nicholl told Entertainment Tonight. “I think when you see what came out of Harry’s evidence and his witness statement, you can understand why. [There are other] details that the royal family really don’t want to come out.”

August 2023

Harry was all smiles when he was spotted in August, despite having been dealt a bit of a blow from what royal watchers could tell. His ‘His Royal Highness’ title was officially removed from the royal website, and while it seemed that his brother and family members were sending him a message, author Gareth Russell told Us Weekly that it could’ve been nothing more than website oversight.

“Part of it — without throwing too much shade in the general direction of the royal website — is that it is chaotically curated,” Gareth said, noting that the royals don’t dictate the landing page. “The royals no more update the website than the president of the U.S. would update the presidential website.”

“There are still some areas where Queen Elizabeth II is referred to in the present tense. So, they really need to get that dealt with,” Russell further explained. “I think it’s simply the fact that they’re catching up bit by bit and trying to update this as they go. I don’t think it’s necessarily a slight to Prince Harry. I don’t think at the moment either the Sussexes or Buckingham Palace seem to be interested in slinging arrows or trading insults.”

August 2023

Princess Kate has been secretly working to reunite the feuding brothers, a source told In Touch exclusively. “It bothers Kate that William and Harry are still estranged, so she’s taking matters into her own hands,” the insider revealed. “She feels their feud has gone on long enough and that it’s time for William and Harry to be brothers again. She believes there’s still time to repair the damage and has been quietly pushing for a truce.”

“Kate can’t imagine not speaking to her brother or sister this long, or for her children to cut each other off like this,” explained the source. (William and Kate share Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5.) “When there’s an argument among the kids, Kate’s quick to make sure they apologize to one another. She feels that William and Harry’s problem is that they don’t know how to say sorry.”

August 2023

Prince Harry claimed in his Heart of Invictus Netflix docuseries that he had no “support network” when dealing with his mental health after returning from an army tour in Afghanistan, even though he previously admitted that brother Prince William urged him to seek therapy after his return from the war zone and for his ongoing trauma over losing their mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.
Harry claimed in the program that “no one around me really could help.” That flew in the face of what he said in a 2017 podcast with Bryony Gordon, telling her that William said, “Look, you really need to deal with this. It is not normal to think that nothing has affected you.”
“It’s all about timing. And for me personally, my brother, you know, bless him, he was a huge support to me. He kept saying ‘this is not right, this is not normal, you need to talk to [someone] about stuff, it’s OK,'” Harry added at the time regarding William’s advice.

November 2023

William and Harry’s feud was once again brought into the spotlight amid the release of royal author Omid Scobie‘s scathing book, Endgame.

“I saw Harry’s release of Spare as his last attempt at telling his family how he’s felt for years,” Omid told People ahead of the book’s release. “Because clearly there’s never been an open enough forum to have these conversations or share these feelings.”

The author further dove into the brothers’ relationship within his pages, noting that while he was researching the book, he found that “absolutely nothing has changed” in the last year between them.

“I was talking to a source quite early on in the process, and they called Harry a ‘defector’ and said that was William’s view,” he said. “These were two men who once upon a time were firmly aligned in their outlook. One of them had to move on to also protect the crown.”

January 2024

Royal author Robert Hardman, while promoting his book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, said he believed Harry took a major dig at William’s wife, Kate Middleton, during his 2023 Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan.

In the first episode, the Duke of Sussex claimed, “For so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or urge to marry someone who fits in the mold, as opposed to somebody who you are perhaps destined to be with.” He married former Suits star Meghan Markle in May 2018.

“Harry talks about marrying someone for love, not because it’s the sort of person you ought to,” the author told the New York Post. “I think that’s a lot more wounding. I mean that’s effectively dissing your brother and his choice of wife in a very public way.”

In addition to taking an alleged swipe at William’s wife, Hardman added that Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare, drove a further wedge between the siblings.

“Both these brothers, they’ve guarded their privacy, It’s been really important to them. And William is a really private person. He doesn’t do nearly as many interviews as his father did at this age and family life is absolutely off-limits for media,” Hardman explained.

“Privacy is really important, and Harry’s just gone and chucked all these stories about their childhood into the public domain,” the royal commentator added about all of the private, personal stories Harry divulged about his brother in the book.

July 2024

Harry revealed one of the reasons he is still feuding with his family in an interview for ITV’s July 2024 documentary Tabloids on Trial.

“To what extent do you think your determination to fight the tabloids destroyed the relationship with your family?” reporter Rebecca Barry asked Harry, who admitted it was “certainly a central piece to it.”

“That’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press,” he continued, adding that he wished they had acted “as a family” when faced with media scrutiny. “I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you’re in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. But I’m doing this for my reasons.”