Things never seem to get any easier for the Sussexes, whose careers and business enterprises have failed to launch since leaving the restrictive confines of the UK’s Royal family. But even before their disastrous Megxit, Prince Harry tells of a poor response from cherished family members.
Princes Harry and William were once inseparable, especially after the tragic death of their mother Diana, the Princess of Wales. Growing up in the limelight, especially in the weird world of the Royal family with all its rules, regulations, and bizarre traditions, they needed one another for support, emotional or otherwise. So that’s why it’s so sad to see brothers at war, locked in a battle that seems unlikely to ever end. But although their relationship worsened after the public split from the Royal family, it seems like Harry and William were drifting apart long before, with cracks showing even early on in Harry and Meghan’s relationship.
Writing in Spare, Harry‘s tell-all memoir, he recalls that his brother, the heir to multiple kingdoms Prince William, shared his concerns about Harry’s match with Suits star Meghan Markle. Sitting together in the garden, William shared his misgivings about Meghan. Citing her career as an “American actress”, William suggested she would find it “difficult” to fit into the Royal family and its rules and traditions.
Adding fuel to the fire, William is reported to have said, “She’s an actress, Harold. Anything can happen.”
WATCH: Harry & Meghan: The Royals in Crisis, streaming now on Hulu
In his memoir, Harry wrote this of the event: “One day, sitting together in his garden, he’d predicted a host of difficulties I could expect if I hooked up with an ‘American actress’, a phrase he always managed to make sound like a ‘convicted felon’.”
But Harry’s response is telling, as he writes of the intensity of William’s reaction. The Royal family has historical beef with American actresses, after all, so it isn’t especially surprising that the heir to the throne would have a particular distaste for them, given that he’s only the heir to the throne because of an American actress marrying into the family.
This is a sore subject within the Royal family, with the institutional memory of Wallis Simpson, a divorced American actress (sound familiar?), and her controversial relationship with and marriage to the then-king, Edward VIII. For a family built on dynastic succession and claims of legitimacy, anything that disrupts their careful messaging could bring the whole thing tumbling down. Especially in the 1930s, when the ill-fated relationship and later marriage between Simpson and Edward VIII occurred. Everyone in the direct line of succession would be motivated to avoid another such controversy.
But although Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, was sure to have brought back memories of the turmoil caused by the abdication of King Edward VIII, it’s a different time entirely. A brand new millennium. Harry even writes that his family’s initial meeting with Megan was positive: “I remember my family first meeting her and being incredibly impressed. Some of them didn’t quite know what to do with themselves.” Unfortunately for everyone involved, the first impressions didn’t stick, and things rapidly unraveled. There are even suggestions that the Sussexes are no longer together.
Today, William and Harry’s relationship is characterized by short words and public spats, with their father, King Charles III, having to make a desperate plea for unity. Still, perhaps there’s a route to something a bit more amicable, as William has been prepared to extend an olive branch. But has there been too much water under the bridge?
