This time five years ago, the world experienced a life-altering shift when COVID-19 took hold and plunged everyone into lockdown. But while the average home confinement was giving rise to excessive baking, Joe Wicks workouts and general knowledge top-ups on weekly Zoom quizzes, Buckingham Palace was in the throes of a dramatic and messy family split.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to throw in the towel on royal duties, leaving the UK in March 2020 – just before borders were shut – for a fresh start across the Atlantic, no one could have predicted the future. But half a decade on from ‘Megxit’, the tension between the Sussexes and the royal family remains palpable, leaving the possibility of reconciliation shrouded in doubt.
However, according to heat’s source, ‘peacemaker’ Kate Middleton is determined to live up to her reputation by doing her level best to end the brotherly estrangement between her husband Prince William, and Harry.
We’re told, ‘It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since Harry and Meghan left the UK. So much has changed, and yet in many ways, things haven’t moved forward at all. For Kate, family has always been hugely important – and that includes Harry – so of course she’s still holding out hope that, in time, things can heal. She’s not naïve about the challenges, but she’s not willing to give up fighting. She believes that bridges can be rebuilt if there’s willingness on both sides, and she is staying as positive and optimistic as possible about the prospect of peace.’
When Harry, 40, and Meghan, 43, upped sticks from the UK to her home state of California, it led to an outpouring of allegations about the royal family and how they were treated within the fold. These were delivered via a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, a fly-on-wall Netflix series in 2022, and most notoriously, Harry’s bestselling memoir Spare, released in 2023. His book put his damaged relationship with William, 42, under the microscope, most shockingly in an extract where Harry claims his older brother physically assaulted him during a confrontation about Meghan.
But, while the Duke of Sussex has refused to rule out reconciliation one day – particularly in the aftermath of his father’s cancer diagnosis last January – it is still widely reported that he and William are not on speaking terms. And we’re now told that Kate – who herself is in remission from an undisclosed form of cancer – is not giving up her fight to get her brother-in-law back into the family unit.
‘There was a time when Kate thought that some distance might help ease the tension between William and Harry but if anything, it’s made things worse,’ our insider says. ‘She’s not pushing hard, but she is quietly encouraging William to soften his heart towards his brother and to keep an open mind.
‘She hasn’t made a whole lot of headway with him, as he’s still very reluctant to trust Harry and Meghan. But Kate feels they ought to set a good example for their own kids, which is another reason she’s being so dogged about this. It breaks her heart to imagine something like this happening to them, so she wants to show them that family is worth fighting for.’
It was recently reported that, while on a half-term holiday in the Caribbean with William and their children, George, 11, Charlotte, nine, and Louis, six, Kate instigated a reunion with Prince Harry, who flew to the island of Mustique for a short while and stayed at a different villa. While the insider claimed ‘William was frosty the entire time and didn’t really engage’, it was said that Kate was ‘quite tearful at points’, realising that they were all ‘living totally separate lives now.’
Elsewhere, Harry – who shares Archie, five, and Lilibet, three with Meghan – is scheduled to return to the UK next month as part of his ongoing legal battle with the Home Office over a decision to remove his publicly-funded security on his home turf. It remains up in the air whether Harry will have face-to-face contact with his family during his upcoming trip, but we’re told that Kate would relish the chance to speak frankly with her brother-in-law.
‘There aren’t any firm plans for the family to get together with Harry when he visits in April, but it’s something Kate would welcome,’ our insider shares. ‘If it were up to her, she’d love them all to sit down and talk things through. She knows that may be a big ask and the challenge is that William and Harry see things so differently, so Kate can’t force anything. She’s doing what she can behind the scenes, but ultimately, it’s up to William and Harry and only time will tell if they can let the animosity go.’