Prince William's telling 10-word reply when asked if he'd spoken to Harry

16 October 2023 , 06:00

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Relations between the royal brothers are incredibly strained (Image: Getty Images)

In recent years, the rift between Prince William and Prince Harry has only deepened. The brothers, once "uniquely bonded" by the tragic death of their mother in 1997, have seen their relationship left in tatters as a result of explosive claims made by Harry about the royal family.

In keeping with tradition, senior royals chose not to comment in the aftermath of Harry's explosive autobiography, nor his Netflix series. But William's anger was clear to see following Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.

Harry and Meghan had alleged an unnamed royal had made remarks about son Archie's skin colour before he was born, sparking crisis talks at Buckingham Palace.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made a number of explosive claims to Oprah Winfrey (Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese v)

The following day, William and his wife Kate stepped out for a scheduled public outing when the Prince was asked if he had spoken to his brother in the wake of the interview. Willam tersely replied with just ten words: "No, I haven't spoken to him yet but I will do." He was then directly asked by Sky News reporter Inzamam Rashid if the Royal Family was a racist family, William stated: "We're very much not a racist family."

There were a number of bombshell moments in Harry and Meghan's tell-all interview. The duchess told Oprah that there were some people within the palace who had anxiety over what the colour of Archie's skin might be. "In those months, when I was pregnant, all around this same time, we had in tandem the conversation of he won't be given security, he won't be given a title... and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin will be when he's born," Meghan claimed. "That was relayed to me from Harry, that was from conversations that family had with him. It was really hard to see those as compartmentalised conversations."

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Harry later said that the concerning comments were made but refused to specify who in his family had brought it up. However, he did tell Oprah that the late Queen and Prince Philip weren't involved in the problematic chats.

Meghan also claimed that it was sister-in-law Kate who had made her cry during wedding planning - and not the other way around, as had been reported. "It was a really hard week of the wedding, and she was upset about something," she said. "But she owned it, and she apologised, and she brought me flowers and a note apologising. She did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone, to just take accountability for it."

Meghan confirmed that the issue pertained to dresses for the flower girls in the wedding. "A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining to ... flower girl dresses. And it made me cry," she said. "And it really hurt my feelings, and I thought in the context of everything else that was going on in those days leading to the wedding, it didn't make sense to not be just doing whatever everyone else is doing, which was trying to be supportive knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot."

Gemma Strong