Harry’s first attempt at reconciliation with William and Kate was awkward (
Image: In Pictures via Getty Images)

With Prince Harry set to return to the UK to celebrate ten years of the Invictus Games, he is reportedly set to reunite with his brother Prince William – during what is a seriously difficult period for the Royal Family. Kate and King Charles are both currently being treated for cancer, and are unable to conduct their usual programme of public duties, leaving the number of working royals depleted, and the Prince of Wales as the most senior royal available to take on engagements having to balance his royal work with family responsibilities.

It’s been reported that Harry would be willing to return temporarily to help ease the burden in a part-time capacity, something that sources close to William quickly dismissed, with the brothers having a strained relationship in recent years. Whilst they have come together for landmark moments, like the coronation of King Charles and to pay their respects to their grandmother the late Queen Elizabeth, if there is an attempt made by the brothers to reconcile, it won’t be the first time the pair have tried to patch things up.

In Harry’s bestselling memoir Spare, he lifted the lid on the real state of his relationship with his elder brother – at least from his own perspective. Tracking their bond from childhood all the way to the aftermath of Harry and Meghan’s royal exit – and in one scene he describes a meeting that he and his wife had with Kate and William, during which they tried to patch up their differences.

The meeting took place not long after Meghan and Harry’s 2018 wedding, when tensions had already, according to Harry, begun to build up between the two couples. The duke described that he and his wife went over to Kate and William’s home, where they attempted to clear the air over the “tension between the four of us”.

These tensions were put down to a myriad of things in Spare, from the now-infamous argument over the bridesmaid dresses before the Sussexes’ wedding, to forgetting to buy William and Kate presents and the future King and Queen moving their assigned seats at Harry and Meghan’s wedding reception – something Kate and William denied.

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However, Harry describes realising pretty quickly that they weren’t making much progress towards reconciliation: “None of this airing of grievances was doing us any good, I felt. We weren’t getting anywhere. Kate looked out into the garden, gripping the edges of the leather [seat] so tightly that her fingers were white, and said she was owed an apology”.

At this point, Kate admitted that when Meghan had made an off-hand comment about Kate having “baby brain”, her feelings had been seriously hurt, and Meghan apologised, explaining she hadn’t meant anything by the comment. But, in Harry’s description, William quickly leapt to his wife’s defence, pointing at Meghan and calling her rude. Eventually, apologies were made and a half-hearted truce was “kind of” reached.