Prince William has spoken about his "sadness" at the distance between himself and his brother Prince Harry, in the wake of last week's royal drama that saw Harry and Meghan Markle announce they plan to step down from their senior royal roles.
According to a report from the Sunday Times, Prince William told a friend: "I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives and I can’t do that any more; we’re separate entities."
The Duke of Cambridge's comments come just a few months after Prince Harry appeared to confirm rumours that he and his brother had grown apart, during an interview with ITV's Tom Bradby during the Africa tour.
"Part of this role, part of this job, this family, being under the pressure which it's under, inevitably stuff happens. But we are brothers. We will always be brothers," Harry said.
"We are certainly on different paths at the moment, but I will always be there for him, and as I know he will always be there for me. We don't see each other as much as we used to as we are so busy. But I love him dearly and you know the majority of the stuff is probably — well, the majority of the stuff is created out of nothing. But as brothers, you have good days and you have bad days."
William's most recent comments seem to echo Harry's sentiment; that although the closeness isn't necessarily there anymore, they both still care about one another deeply and have a desire to support each other.
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Prince William continued telling a friend: "I’m sad about [being separate entities]. All we can do, and all I can do, is try and support them and hope that the time comes when we’re all singing from the same page. I want everyone to play on the team."
Today, the brothers will meet with their father, Prince Charles, and their grandmother, the Queen, at Sandringham to discuss the future for Harry and Meghan. Meghan, who flew back to Canada last Thursday to be with her young son Archie, is believed to be 'dialling in' to the conference. While it's thought the family were aware of the Sussexes' plans to step down and gain financial independence from the royal family, they did not know that last Wednesday's announcement would be made - and reportedly it has caused some "hurt".
In a post on Instagram, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told the world they "have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution."
They explained how they "intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen." The couple added that they plan to balance their time, along with their baby son Archie, between the United Kingdom and North America.
Since the bombshell was dropped, there has been speculation that Meghan Markle may return to acting, and that she has already been in conversation with high end fashion brands about how they might collaborate.
Here's hoping today's discussions prove useful, and that the family can pull together to come up with a workable solution for Harry and Meghan and the monarchy going forward.
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Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. news, features and health. The route to her heart is a simple combination of pasta and cheese (somewhat ironic considering the whole health writing thing), and she finds it difficult to commit to TV series so currently has about 14 different ones on the go.
