From William ignoring Meghan, to Meghan's spill-the-beans Oprah interview,
the relationship between the Prince of Wales and his sister-in-law has
gone through some public trouble. But could a mend in the relationship be on the horizon?
As Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand detailed in their book Finding Freedom, Prince William and
Meghan Markle were introduced pretty early into Harry and Meghan's relationship. Meghan first
met William in November 2016, when she and Harry visited the future king at his home.
The book noted that Meghan was ready for William to be tough on her,
but William was gracious and excited to meet his brother's girlfriend. The authors added that he
and Meghan got along "so well," and William was genuinely happy to meet her. However,
Meghan didn't meet William's wife, Catherine, for several more months. The two finally had their
first face-to-face in January 2017. The authors explained that the two had a short meeting and
that Catherine didn't show a great deal of interest in meeting Meghan ahead of time.
While the Princess of Wales is described as "guarded" in the book, by the end of the meeting,
she had assured Meghan that she was always welcome to reach out to her "if she needed anything."
Despite apparently receiving a glowing review from Prince William following
their November 2016 meeting, within months, there were rumors that William was cautioning
Prince Harry against moving too quickly with Meghan. As People noted in 2019,
the initial tension between the brothers has roots in the days that followed Harry telling
his family he planned to marry Meghan. The Prince and Princess of Wales famously
dated for eight years before getting engaged; relative to them, Harry and Meghan moved fast.
As noted in Finding Freedom, Harry and Meghan got engaged in secret sometime between November
2016 and September 2017. During this time, William reportedly began telling palace staff he thought
Harry was going too fast. The authors added that a source revealed Harry became incensed
after William told his younger brother to "take as much time" as he needed to get to know Meghan.
It seems that William had more worries about Meghan Markle in the months leading up to Harry
and Meghan's wedding. As royal author Tina Brown wrote in her book The Palace Papers,
William wasn't convinced that Meghan had been allowed enough
time to prepare for the realities of royal life.
It also seemed that William was using his wife's experience as a blueprint, as the Princess of
Wales still faced difficulty from the media ahead of her royal wedding. However, according to Brown,
Harry's response wasn't what William expected. Brown stated in her book that Harry believed the
faster he could marry Meghan, the better, as a royal wife would afford her police protection.
Despite Prince William's apparent concerns about whether or not Meghan Markle could handle royal
life, the two enjoyed a wonderful Christmas in 2017 alongside the rest of the royal family at
Sandringham. As many fans of the British royal family know, the members of the family are fond of
giving one another gag gifts at the holidays. When it was time for Meghan to give William a gift,
she apparently hit it out of the park. As Omid Scobie and Caroline Durand wrote in
their book Finding Freedom, Meghan found a great gift for William. The authors wrote,
"At least one of her gifts was a huge hit—a spoon for William
that had 'cereal killer' embossed on the shallow bowl end of the utensil."
Meghan and Prince Harry also stayed with William and Catherine for the holiday,
sharing their home in Anmer Hall with the pair and their three children.
In early 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joined William and Catherine for the foursome's
first official appearance together. The four were onstage at the Royal Foundation Forum,
where they spoke about their dynamic as a team of four. During the event, Prince Harry commented,
"Working as a family does have its challenges. Of course it does. But
we're stuck together for the rest of our lives."
Shortly after, Meghan added,
"Togetherness at its finest."
Of course, the four had also been photographed together at family events,
including while attending the Christmas service alongside Queen Elizabeth in
December 2017. At the time, a source also told Us Weekly that Meghan had
been helping Catherine around her home as much as possible as the future queen
and her soon-to-be sister-in-law battled morning sickness during her third pregnancy.
When William married Catherine in 2011, his brother Prince Harry was a big part
of the wedding as William's best man. William returned the favor during Harry's 2018 wedding
to Meghan Markle. William also joked about getting "revenge" on his brother during the
wedding as he reminded reporters that Harry turned around to get a glimpse
of Catherine before William saw her on his own big day. According to Us Weekly, William said,
"It feels great. I'm thrilled and delighted
obviously. Revenge is sweet. I'll be looking forward to it."
As a source close to the family told Us Weekly, while Harry has a number
of close friends he could call on, none of them were as important to him as William.
Unfortunately, it seems that the good feelings between Prince William and Meghan Markle began
to sour relatively soon after Meghan and Prince Harry married in May 2018. Vanity Fair's royal
reporter Katie Nicholl wrote in her 2022 book The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth's Legacy and the
Future of the Crown that Harry hoped William would guide his new wife through royal life
in a closer way following the big day, and was dismayed when it seemed like his older brother
failed to do so. Nicholl detailed Harry's feelings at the time to Yahoo! and explained,
"It was certainly Harry's feeling that William and
Kate hadn't rolled out the red carpet as much as they might have done. You know,
there wasn't this sort of instant welcoming of Meghan into the royal fold."
According to Nicholl, this coupled with William's concerns about how
Harry and Meghan's relationship moved, was the beginning of the feud between the brothers.
"As brothers, you know, you have good days, you have bad days."
Things between Prince William and Meghan Markle appeared to continue to sour in the years that
followed Meghan and Harry's 2018 wedding, and the pair's decision to step back from senior
royal duties in January 2020 fractured the brothers' relationship even more.
"I took matters into my own hands. It was like, I need to do this for my family."
When Meghan and Harry joined William and Catherine at the 2020 Commonwealth
Day observations nearly two months after their surprise announcement,
many believed that William's animosity against Meghan was on full display.
As reported by numerous outlets, it seemed from photographs of the event that William
and Catherine were completely ignoring Meghan and Harry. The four arrived separately at Westminster
Abbey for the day's observation and that Harry and Meghan entered their row to be seated first. When
William and Catherine entered their row directly in front of their brother and sister-in-law,
they all but ignored Meghan's wave and Harry's attempt at conversation.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to Canada and then California following their decision to
depart from royal life in 2020. In 2021, the pair sat down for an interview with
Oprah that proved to cause even more damage to their relationships with the rest of the royal
family. Harry and Meghan opened up about the mistreatment they experienced at the hands of
the British media while in the country and even explained that an unnamed member of the royal
family wondered aloud how dark their firstborn child's skin would be ahead of his birth.
"Were you silent or were you silenced?"
"The latter."
In the immediate days that followed the interview, William made it clear to the
press that he had not spoken to his brother, or his brother's wife. As reported by Insider,
he told a crowd of waiting reporters, "we're very much not a racist family" and that he
planned to speak to Harry soon. Royal author Katie Nicholl told Yahoo! that the interview
changed everything for William and Meghan, and between William and Harry. As she said,
"This was sort of an unbreakable bond between the brothers. And there isn't that closeness anymore.
A lot has happened. I think there's a lot of anger, hurt, and resentment on both sides."
When the royal family reunited in London in 2022 for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee,
it was clear that the year between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Oprah interview
and the Jubilee had not done much to heal the rift between all sides. Harry and Meghan showed
up at St. Paul's Cathedral for the monarch's Thanksgiving service ahead of Prince William
and Catherine, and the four didn't sit together. As a source told Us Weekly,
"Senior members of the royal family were seated in
the front row and non-senior members in the second row."
However, it seemed there was more to the decision than simply that excuse. As the source also told
the outlet, the royal family seated Meghan and Harry apart from William and Catherine to keep
the attention of both the press and the public on Queen Elizabeth and her remarkable feat.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II rocked the royal family in September 2022. As it happened,
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were in the United Kingdom when Elizabeth died,
and Harry was able to join his family at Balmoral following her passing. In the days that followed,
Prince William decided to extend an olive branch of sorts to Meghan and Harry when he
invited them to walk with him and Catherine during the queen's funeral proceedings.
The four gathered together for the first time for a walkaround of Windsor Castle a
few days after Queen Elizabeth died. They were photographed and filmed greeting well-wishers
and mourners and looking at the flowers and tributes left as memorials to Queen
Elizabeth. People also noted that Kensington Palace made a point of noting that William
had specifically invited Harry and Meghan to the walkaround, leaving some to hope
that perhaps William will heal his rift with both Meghan Markle and his brother.