• After nearly a decade of knowing one another, Prince William and Kate Middleton married on April 29, 2011.
  • At the reception later that evening, Prince Harry’s best man speech brought the house down—and brought a tear to Kate’s eye.
  • Though Harry is currently estranged from most of the royal family, Harry once said he regarded Kate like the sister he never had.

As Prince Harry prepares to hopefully meet up with his father King Charles next week when he is in the U.K., it’s difficult to not think back to times when relations were more cordial between the Duke of Sussex and the rest of the royal family.

Case in point? The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, where Harry’s best man speech left Kate with “a tear in her eye,” The Daily Mail reported. It was reported on in royal biographer Christopher Andersen’s book Brothers and Wives, and Andersen wrote that in his toast the evening of April 29, 2011, Harry apologized to Kate “for having to marry a bald man” and delivered perfect impressions of his older brother “cooing down the line at Babykins,” which is William’s reported nickname for his wife.

Kate Middleton and Prince William on their April 29, 2011 wedding day.

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Kate, for her part, calls William “Billy,” according to the book, and at the reception Harry repeatedly called the newlyweds “the dude and the duchess,” referring likely to William and Kate’s newly minted titles of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, which they received from Queen Elizabeth on their wedding day. (The two are now Prince and Princess of Wales following King Charles taking the throne in 2022.)

Referring to their mother Princess Diana—who died in 1997, when William was 15 years old and Harry 12 years old—Andersen wrote, “There were muffled sobs when Harry told his brother, ‘Our mother would be so very proud of you,’ and sighs when he said he loved Kate like a sister.”

Prince Harry, Kate Middleton, and Prince William.
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“At one point, the bride wiped away tears when her newly minted brother-in-law traded smiles with Chelsy [Davy, his girlfriend at the time] and admitted that Kate and William’s decade-long romance was his ‘inspiration,’” Andersen continued.

It was Davy, Andersen reported, that helped Harry smooth out his best man speech—including removing a line about Kate’s “killer legs.” As the night ended and fireworks were set off above Buckingham Palace, “Harry put his arms around William and Kate and began to weep,” Andersen wrote. “Soon the best man and the bride were helping brush away each other’s tears while a bemused and thoroughly dry-eyed William looked on.”

Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry in 2017.

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Kate Middleton and Prince Harry.

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“People don’t realize how much Harry and Kate love and help each other,” a guest said of the touching moment. “It’s key to this whole thing.”

Watching Harry’s estrangement with his brother has been “hard and sad,” former head of communications for both brothers Jason Knauf said earlier this year.

“We have ups and downs in family,” he added. “Even when you really love someone, you can have times when you don’t want to spend that much time with them. It’s very difficult to have this stuff play out in the public eye, but [William has] chosen to keep his thoughts on it private, and I think all of us who know him really have to respect that.”

Kate Middleton, Prince William, and Prince Harry.
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“We should do the same, but I will say, of course, it’s been hard and sad—especially for all of us who know both of them,” Knauf continued.