‘There is something in the wind here’: Prince William makes a ‘calculated’ move as Prince Harry gets ‘desperate’ to do delayed damage control

Prince William casually mentioning his younger brother Prince Harry’s name in public after about six years could be a sign that the world is healing — well, at least for the two brothers who have become estranged since Meghan Markle got into the picture — or is there some other nefarious reason involved?

In ITV’s new documentary Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, the heir to the British throne made a shocking gesture when he mentioned the Duke of Sussex’s name while discussing his passion for charity work. According to William, it was their late mother, Princess Diana, who inspired him to embrace philanthropy when she took him and Harry to a homeless shelter when they were still kids. 

The choice to explicitly mention his brother’s name in the documentary is quite bizarre, knowing that the Prince of Wales has, by all means, avoided saying Harry’s moniker in public for more than half a decade now. As such, royal experts, including Richard Kay, assume that William is up to something with this seemingly “calculated” move. 

The Daily Mail’s editor at large suggested in the latest Palace Confidential podcast episode that Prince William deliberately mentioned his younger brother’s name in the documentary because he was finally willing to put the past behind them and reconcile with the Duke of Sussex. 

“Well, you could easily take that latter view that he can’t not mention [Harry’s name]. How could he separate Harry and him from something which his mother took them both to. But I think there is something calculated and I think it is an olive branch.”

Kay went on to disclose that King Charles’ heir also attempted to extend an olive branch to the former spare earlier, but the palace intercepted it and allegedly forced the newspaper to scrap the story about it. 

“A few months ago, we had a story — sadly didn’t turn out to be quite right that William had made another gesture towards Harry. And they pushed back very firmly on this and they didn’t want the newspaper to run the story, which we didn’t,” he said before adding, “But this time, I think there is something in the wind here.”

The highly publicized spat between Diana’s sons has been going on for years and reached a dramatic peak when Harry released his controversial memoir, Spare, where he claimed his older brother attacked him during an argument and made other, eyebrow-raising, accusations against the future king. Before this, Harry’s exit from the Royal Family with his wife, Markle, already caused a gap between him and the future king. 

But now that William is making the first move toward reconciliation, it wouldn’t be a surprise for Harry to quickly forgive and forget. After all, if recent reports are to be believed, he’s been trying to find a way back to the Royal Fold ever since Queen Elizabeth’s passing and after news broke on his father and Kate Middleton’s illnesses. 

While Kay refrained from hinging too much on what William’s intentions may or may not be, he is pretty certain that based on all the “mood music from California” Harry is “desperate” to make a royal comeback. After all, every move he has made, whether it is fighting to reintate his old security level or buying a property in Portugal, have all been painted as mere tricks to get closer to his estranged family. Whether that’s true or not, his name being uttered in a public setting by William could be a “sign that the family are listening.”