Prince Harry and Prince Williams are not on good terms these days but it wasn’t always that way.
In Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare, he recounted his childhood summers that was spent at a property belonging to “old friends of Pa’s, Hugh and Emilie.” The Duke of Sussex shared how they would get into physical altercations with the young children of their father’s friends. Harry noted how he felt “defensive” of William during those altercations.
“We often went to visit them for a week or two, during school holidays and summers. They had four sons with whom Willy and I were always thrown together, like pups into a bunch of pit bulls,” Harry recalled.
“Hair-pulling, eye-gouging, arm-twisting, sleeper holds, all was fair in love and war and at Hugh and Emilie’s country house,” Harry continued.
The 40-year-old went on to remember how he would protect his brother during thos emoments. Harry elaborated, “I’d hear him crying out for help and down would come the red mist, like a blood vessel bursting behind my eyes. I’d lose all control, all ability to focus on anything but family, country, tribe, and hurl myself at someone, everyone.”
“When the scrap finally ended for good, when we hobbled away together, I always felt such love for him, and I sensed love in return, but also some embarrassment. I was half Willy’s size, half his weight. I was the younger brother: he was supposed to save me, not the other way around,” Harry added.
The brothers’ strained relationship became publicized in 2020 following Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle stepping back from their royal duties and ultimately moving to the United States. The divide grew between Harry and the Prince of Wales as well as the Royal Family with the his and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah, their Netflix docuseries and his memoir.
Harry has been transparent about wanting to repair his relationship with his family. In an interview with the BBC News on May 2, Harry said, “I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore.”
“Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has,” he continued, referencing King Charles’s cancer diagnosis in 2024 and his continuing treatment. “He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff, but it would be nice to reconcile.”
The interview came shortly after Harry lost his legal challenge regarding his decreased security after stepping down as a senior members of the Royal Family. Harry has previously stated in a discussion at the New York Times Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin, that he would stay in American “for good” due to the level of how the privacy and freedom afforded to him and his family. He added that they are able to do things in the states they “undoubtedly wouldn’t be able to do in the UK” because of security concerns. Harry and Meghan share two children, Prince Archie and Lilibet.
“There is a lot of control and ability in my father’s hands,” Harry further said in his BBC interview. “Ultimately, this whole thing could be resolved through him. Not necessarily by intervening, but by stepping aside, allowing the experts to do what is necessary.”
According to PEOPLE, the palace has consistently denied that the King has the ability to reinstate Harry’s security.