Could Princess Diana's Memory Help Prince William and Prince Harry Reconcile?
Despite Harry’s act of rebellion and William’s steadfast allegiance to The Firm, there was one more chance on the horizon for reconciliation: the dedication of a statue of their mother in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace on July 1, 2021, what would have been Diana’s sixtieth birthday. Her sons had been working together on getting the statue done for four years, and Harry had a two-word response when asked if he would skip the unveiling: “No way.”
Yet, when the moment came, it became quickly and painfully evident that nothing had changed. The brothers chatted amiably enough as they entered the Sunken Garden together, and greeted the thirteen guests in attendance. Diana’s sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, were there, along with Earl Spencer. But neither Charles nor the Queen chose to attend, and the complete absence of anyone from the royal family other than William and Harry was jarring. Kate also chose not to be there out of deference to Meghan, who, less than a month after giving birth, understandably remained in California. It seemed particularly sad that none of the Cambridge children were there with their father and Uncle Harry; William and Kate had made a point of frequently talking to George, Charlotte, and Louis about their Grandma Diana, and the children were even encouraged to write loving letters to her as a way to keep her memory alive.
Even during the unveiling itself, William and Harry kept their distance from each other. Gingerly pulling two cords, the brothers watched as the green tarpaulin dropped to reveal a bronze statue of Diana surrounded by three children who, according to a Kensington Palace press release, “represent the universality and generational impact of the Princess’ work.”
“Every day,” the brothers said in a joint statement,” we wish she were still with us. Then, having chosen to forgo this singular opportunity for a cathartic public reconciliation, William and Harry went to their separate corners—from all accounts, still barely on speaking terms.
It was impossible to imagine a more poignant and fitting moment for the Heir and Spare to come together than at the unveiling of her statue. Diana had nearly toppled the monarchy once, but what she wanted most in her life was for her sons—princes she had molded from an early age into down-to-earth, charismatic, caring human beings—to ultimately save the hidebound institution from itself. Only time would tell if William, who has always needed Harry as much as Harry needed him, would join with his maverick brother in making Diana’s dream a reality.
For his part, Harry was not making the prospect of reconciliation any easier. Not long after Meghan release The Bench, a children’s book about the bond between fathers and sons featuring touching illustrations of Harry and Archie, the rebel prince announced that he would be publishing an “accurate and wholly truthful” memoir of his own in late 2022. “I’m writing this not as the prince I was born,” Harry said in a press release, “but as the man I have become.” He promised that proceeds from his reported $20 million book deal with Penguin Random House would go to charity, but the fact remained that he had been working on the book for more than a year and waited until the very last minute to spring it on his unsuspecting relatives. Understandably, there was once again panic in the Palace as royal family members and courtiers alike braced themselves for a probable new onslaught of headline-making revelations. This time, the Sussexes had truly crossed the Rubicon. There would be no turning back.
Whatever the future held, there as one promise to the brothers that, in the end, the People’s Princess couldn’t keep. “William and Harry will be properly prepared,” Diana had once naively said. “I am making sure of this. I don’t want them suffering in the way I did.”
From BROTHERS AND WIVES by Christopher Andersen. Copyright (c) 2021 by Andersen Productions, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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