Prince Harry may have felt increasingly pushed to the side as Prince William and Kate Middleton built a close family of their own, according to claims made by royal author Tina Brown.
The suggestion offers a different perspective on the long-running tension between the two brothers, indicating that their relationship may have started changing years before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped away from royal duties.
According to Brown's account in her book The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor – The Truth and the Turmoil, Harry's close relationship with William became more complicated after William married Kate in 2011 and their family began to grow.
The arrival of Prince George in 2013 and Princess Charlotte in 2015 reportedly strengthened William and Kate's family unit. Brown's account suggests that Harry found himself missing the particularly close bond he had once shared with his older brother.
Key Takeaways
- Royal author Tina Brown has claimed that Prince Harry felt increasingly displaced as William and Kate built their family.
- The account suggests the brothers' relationship changed after William married Kate Middleton.
- The birth of Prince George and Princess Charlotte reportedly deepened the change in the brothers' dynamic.
- Brown's claims come from her book and accounts attributed to people familiar with the royal household.
- The claims provide historical context but should not be treated as a direct statement from Prince Harry about his feelings.
Brown has described Harry as mourning the close, united relationship he once had with William. The brothers had reportedly remained physically close for a period, including living near each other and sharing professional space, but their personal lives were moving in different directions.
William was increasingly connected to the Middleton family, particularly through his marriage to Kate and the couple's growing family life. For Harry, this reportedly created a sense that the special bond between the brothers was no longer the same.
The timing is significant. Princess Charlotte was born in 2015, several years before Harry and Meghan announced their decision to step back from their senior royal roles. This means the tensions described by Brown predate one of the most consequential periods in the modern Royal Family.
The account also highlights how different William's relationship with the Middleton family was from Harry's experience. Royal commentator Joe Little previously suggested that Kate brought William a sense of family stability and normality through her close-knit relatives.
That family environment became an important part of William and Kate's life as they raised Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. From the outside, their household developed into a distinct family unit within the wider Royal Family.
For Harry, however, Brown's account suggests that the changing family dynamic may have been difficult to adjust to. The claim is not that William deliberately excluded his younger brother, but rather that Harry reportedly experienced the shift as a loss of the unusually close brotherly partnership they had once shared.
The brothers' relationship has since gone through much more public strain. Harry and Meghan's move away from royal duties, their relocation to the United States and Harry's later public discussions about family relationships all contributed to greater attention surrounding the brothers' increasingly distant relationship.
Still, it is important to distinguish between documented events and interpretations of Harry's private feelings. The claim that Harry felt "displaced" comes from Tina Brown's reporting and interpretation of events rather than a newly released statement from Harry confirming that characterization.
Looking back, the account presents William's marriage and the arrival of his children as an important stage in the brothers' changing relationship. Whether that family transition was itself the cause of their later estrangement is less certain, but it provides additional context for understanding how their relationship evolved over time.
Ultimately, the story is less about one moment that permanently separated the brothers and more about a gradual change in their circumstances. William was building his own family with Kate, while Harry's role within the Royal Family was also changing.
Those different paths eventually became much more pronounced, but Brown's account suggests that the roots of the brothers' distance may have appeared long before the Sussexes' royal exit.
