PRINCESS DIANA would be furious Harry has left William to pursue her legacy alone – warring brothers will never recover, expert says
Royal expert Phil Dampier claimed the warring brothers’ late mother would be “devastated” the pair were not working together on a project so close to her heart.
It comes as Prince William is set to appear on screen on Wednesday and Thursday this week in a documentary about homelessness.
In the new ITV documentary Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, the prince hears stories from those in need who he hopes to help with Homewards.
For the first time in several years, Wills mentioned Harry by name, telling tales of when Diana took them both as young boys to a homeless shelter in London.
It’s thought the Prince has not mentioned his brother’s name in public or in an interview since 2018, when the two, alongside the Princess of Wales and Meghan Markle, were interviewed at the Royal Foundation Forum.
Royal author and journalist Mr Dampier told The Sun: “Princess Diana took both of her sons, William and Harry, from a very early age, to see how the other half live.
“She was determined to show them that not everybody lived in palaces, and not everybody was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
“Diana let them sleep rough overnight when they were younger, to show them what it was actually like.
“It’s been seen by some as an olive branch to Harry because he’s mentioned him for the first time in six years in this documentary.
“I don’t see it that myself. I think the rift between them is still as wide as ever, unfortunately.
“It’s just a rather sad indication of the fact that something which they could have worked together on, and something which they both experienced at a young age, they’re no longer doing.
“It’s just left William on his own, and Harry’s not joining in, so I don’t see this as an olive branch.”
On why the Prince spoke of his brother, the expert believed he “couldn’t just airbrush him out of history”,
“He couldn’t not mention Harry, because he’s in all the photographs, and he’s in all the films when they went with Diana,” he said.
“And so it’s fairly obvious that he had to.
“I don’t see it as an indication that Harry’s going to suddenly come over and take part in this charity and help out with the homelessness, cause.”
The expert believed Diana would be distraught to see how the pair are still estranged.
“I’m sure Diana would be obviously devastated to see what’s happened between the two brothers,” he said.
“She’d obviously be very upset to see that they’ve drifted apart so much and have fallen out so badly.
“I mean, obviously, if she’d still been alive, you’d like to think that that wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
“But this this is the sort of thing that highlights it a cause like this.
“They both could have done so much good for something which she was very anxious for them to to do and so I’m sure she’d be absolutely devastated.”
And, Mr Dampier believed there would be some turmoil on Harry’s end too.
“I’d like to think that Harry would have some regrets and think to himself, ‘this is a shame that I’m not involved in this’,” he continued.
“He might see this as something that William’s doing on his own to sort of show him up.
“I don’t think William’s doing it for that reason, but obviously it’s the contrast between them and the things they’re getting involved with.
“And when you see Harry come back for something like the WellChild awards that he did the other week. you know he’s still very popular with some of these charities he could have done a great deal of good.
“But you know he’s got other fish to fry, and he’s going to go his own way. Very sadly I can’t see this rift healing in the near future, if at all.
“There have been reports that William has told people told friends that he doesn’t even want Harry to be at his coronation.
“So he’s looking that far ahead and if he’s saying that clearly, he doesn’t see any chance of a reconciliation, I, personally don’t think they will ever make it up sadly.
“I think there might be some sort of rapprochement between Harry and the King.
“I don’t think that the King would like to go to his grave, you know, being estranged from his son.”
However, royal expert Hugo Vickers suggested that Prince William might have extended an “olive branch” to Prince Harry in the upcoming ITV documentary.
Hugo added that Prince William mentioning Harry’s name for the first time since 2018 could signify a “step forward” towards reconciliation between the brothers.
It comes as previews for the ITV documentary revealed one photo of Diana and William visiting a shelter on June 14, 1993.
The prince is seen playing chess with a homeless man.
In another picture, taken in December the same year, William is seen standing with his mother at the shelter, his arms holding presents to give out.
William says: “My mother took me to the Passage, she took Harry and I both there… I’d never been to anything like that before and I was a bit anxious as to what to expect.
“My mother went about her usual part of making everyone feel relaxed and having a joke with everyone… I remember having some good conversations, playing chess and chatting.
“You meet people, like I did then, who put a different perspective in your head.”
The Sussexes have been contacted for comment.
In 2018, the Sun told how “simmering tension” began when William questioned the speed of Harry and Meghan’s engagement.
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry, 39, also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
It came after Prince Philip called Meghan the “D.O.W” after the Duchess of Windsor — the American divorcee who led Edward VIII to abdicate.
And he warned the late Queen to be “cautious” of Harry’s then bride-to-be, a royal author claims.
Ingrid Seward revealed in new book My Mother And I that Prince Philip felt it was “uncanny…how much Meghan reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor“.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Last year Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan.
In his book Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
