It may seem like an eternity ago, but there was a time when Prince William and Prince Harry had plenty of reasons to bond.
“At one point, William hated the press more than Harry did,” author Omid Scobie told E! News in an exclusive interview discussing his new book Endgame, which looks at the brothers’ ongoing estrangement and a variety of other issues that threaten the future of the monarchy. “So for things to be at this point is not only sad, but it speaks to William as a leader, as heir to the throne.”
And not in a particularly good way.
Since the January publication of Harry’s memoir Spare, a continuation of the controversy that began with his explosive interview with Meghan Markle with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 (which continues to haunt the royal family today), Scobie said, “there has yet to be a conversation of any value or substance with his own brother.”
E! News has attempted to reach out to Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Harry’s representatives for comment on Scobie’s report in the book but has not received a response.
William and Kate Middleton ignored Endgame-related questions from reporters on the red carpet at the Royal Variety Performance on Nov. 30. And while in Dubai to attend COP28, when asked how he was doing, King Charles III replied, “I’m doing very well, more or less,” joking that he was “recovering from the shock” of turning 75.
In Spare and in multiple interviews, Harry maintained that he essentially wrote the book not to expose the inner workings of the royal family, but to explain to his own father and brother (who consistently rebuffed his attempts to have those conversations) what he had been dealing with personally for years before he and Meghan moved in in 2020.
He wanted his family to be held to account,” Scobie said. “The ball has been in William’s court for 11 months. And how ridiculous, because this isn’t just about some random man’s brother. This is about the future king, the future head of the Church of England, who almost a year later still can’t at least sit down and have a conversation with his own blood.”
But taken in context, William’s response (or lack thereof) isn’t all that surprising (there was no official comment from any member of the royal family in response to Harry’s recollections of Spare, although there were plenty of reports that they weren’t happy about it).
Scobie said William’s character has a “duality.” “He’s a man who, as I said, once hated the press more than his brother and was always (and remains) extremely professional in his engagements, and a pleasure to be around. He was the one who recognized you [as a member of the press] and made you feel like a person rather than just an irritant at these events.”
William “also loved his normal life as an air ambulance pilot,” the veteran royal correspondent added, “which he clung to for so long, much to the chagrin of the institution.”
The Duke of Cambridge, William, announced in 2017 that he would be leaving the East Anglian Air Ambulance after two years. Kensington Palace said at the time that the heir was making the move because he and Kate were “keen to increase their official work on behalf of the Queen and the charities and causes they support.”
The couple, now the Prince and Princess of Wales, have worked as full-time royals ever since, though Kate has made it clear (with actions, if not as many words) that she is a mother to Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, first and a future queen second.
While there were complaints behind the scenes that William wasn’t doing enough for the crown, his time as a pilot “was what made him,” Scobie said. “It made him a man to be admired because he didn’t have to do that. So to see him get to this point now, where family is not the priority for him, it’s all about his image, his reputation, at any cost, shows me that maybe he’s lost himself a little bit in the role or allowed the role to absorb him in the way these roles do.”