Kate Middleton Didn’t Initially Get the Prince Harry, Prince William Rift — Expert: ‘It’s Incredibly Hard to Understand’
“Estranged” relatives? The idea wasn’t an easy one for Kate Middleton when the “rift” between Prince Harry and Prince William began, a royal expert says. The reason: The Princess of Wales’s upbringing in a “united family.”
Expert says Kate ‘believed the rift’ between Harry and William ‘could be fixed’
The Duke of Sussex (Harry) and the Prince of Wales (William) aren’t on speaking terms and haven’t been for years. What started as “different paths,” in Harry’s words, became a full-blown relationship of “space” where the two don’t talk.
Bombshell interviews were had — hello, March 2021 Oprah interview — and accusations were made (Harry’s Spare memoir includes many passages about William). The whole thing, according to royal expert Jennie Bond, was likely hard for Kate to grasp.
“When you come from a happy, united family — as Catherine does — it’s incredibly hard to understand how people can become estranged,” Bond told OK! Magazine.
“I think she believed the rift could be fixed and, after Prince Philip’s funeral, we saw her talking with Harry and obviously encouraging William to do the same. But we now know that it didn’t work. In fact, William and Harry had a blazing row right after the funeral.”
William, Harry claimed in his January 2023 memoir, invoked a “secret code” about their late mother, Princess Diana. He also noted how their father, the now-King Charles III, pleaded with them not to make his “final years a misery.”
William and Kate have come to a ‘conclusion’ about the Harry ‘rift,’ move on (for now)
“There comes a point when you just have to accept that happy families are not a game that everyone can play,” Bond continued. “Catherine has been hurt and insulted by things that Harry and Meghan have said.”
The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan, mentioned Kate during her and Harry’s Oprah interview as well as their 2022 Netflix docuseries. She claimed the “reverse happened,” or that Kate made her cry over flower girl dresses, not the other way around as was reported. Additionally, she remarked that greeting her future sister-in-law with a hug when she and Harry were dating “jarred” Kate.
Meanwhile, Harry included several cringe-worthy anecdotes about Kate in Spare, from an awkward moment involving lip gloss to “clear the air” meetings.
“She and William are a very strong team,” the expert said. “And I suspect that, together, they’ve come to the conclusion that the rift with Harry cannot be fixed in the foreseeable future. They’ve closed their minds to that possibility and decided to get on with their lives.”
Kate’s ‘fighting back’ amid Harry and William’s estrangement in ‘the only way she can’
As for what Kate’s doing while her husband and brother-in-law continue not talking, she’s “fighting back” by sticking to appearances. However, it also means planning her own outings around Harry and Meghan Markle’s, such as the 2023 Invictus Games that wrapped up on Sept. 16, 2023, in Düsseldorf, Germany.
“Kate’s not stupid,” Duncan Larcombe, a royal commentator, told OK! Magazine. “She wants any engagements that she’s involved in to get their rightful attention and coverage, and making sure she looks her best and behaves her best is part of that.”
She’s “fighting back in the only way she can,” he said. “The [Invictus] Games are a big deal for Harry. It’s one of the biggest things he does, and Kate is just going to have to grin and bear the fact it’s the Harry and Meghan show while it’s on. Her way of dealing with anything they are up to is just to keep a dignified silence and carry on.”
