Prince Harry believes Princess Diana would be sad about the state of her sons’ relationship. In his memoir, Spare , the Duke of Sussex reportedly referred to his brother Prince William as his “archnemesis” and wrote about a physical confrontation with his older sibling.
During an upcoming interview with Michael Strahan, Harry was asked how his late mother would feel about his relationship with his brother now. “I think she would be sad,” he answered. “I think she’d be looking at it long-term to know that there are certain things that we need to go through to be able to heal the relationship.”
“I have felt the presence of my mum more so in the last two years than I have in the last 30,” the Duke continued.
William and Harry were 15 and 12, respectively, when their mother died in 1997. Back in early 2018, William shared (via ABC News ) that his and Harry’s relationship was “closer than it’s been because of the situations we’ve been through.”
He added, “Losing our mother at a young age has kind of helped us sort of travel through that difficult patch together.”
“When you’re like minded, you go through similar things,” William also said. “It’s a bond and it’s something that, you know, you’ve tackled it together and come out the other side better for it.”
The Prince of Wales went on to serve as Harry’s best man at his wedding to Meghan Markle later that year. Harry had served as the best man at his brother’s wedding to Catherine Middleton in 2011.
While Harry acknowledged in December of 2019 that he and William were on different paths, he noted that he would always be there for him. “We’re brothers, we’ll always be brothers. We’re certainly on different paths at the moment, but I will always be there for him and as I know, he’ll always be there for me,” Harry said during the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey. “We don’t see each other as much as we used to because we’re so busy, but I love him dearly.”
At the time, Harry pointed out that “as brothers, you know, you have good days, you have bad days.”
In 2021, Harry revealed to Oprah Winfrey that his and William’s relationship was “space at the moment.” “Time heals all things, hopefully,” the Duke said. He also expressed his love for his big brother. “I love William to bits. He’s my brother,” Harry said. “We’ve been through hell together. I mean, we have a shared experience. But we, you know, we’re on different paths.”