Prince Harry is scheduled to return to the U.K. in early July for the Invictus Games One Year to Go event, but a reunion with Prince William will likely not be on his schedule. The brothers are understood not to have spoken since Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in 2022, but when they were growing up, Princess Diana tried to raise them exactly the same. According to the late royal’s former butler, Paul Burrell, one decision was especially tough because of the implications it would have on her children.
The King (then Prince Charles) and Princess Diana announced their separation in 1992, and although they initially did not have plans to formally split, their divorce was finalized in 1996.
“Diana struggled with the divorce [from Prince Charles],” Burell says, speaking on behalf of Casino.org. “She didn’t want it; she wanted to stay in the Royal Family, and for her, her struggle was keeping her boys safe and keeping her position.”
Princess Diana is pictured with Prince William and Prince Harry in 1989.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Charles and Diana were already separated when Prince William headed off to Eton College in 1995.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The former butler adds that it was “difficult” for Diana “to accept that the boys would grow up differently,” adding, “There was no difference between them in her eyes.” Even if members of the royal household treated Prince William in a more preferential way than Harry, Diana insisted “the boys were always the same.”
Bringing both of her boys up “in a solid family unit” was a high priority for Princess Diana, according to Burrell. “That’s why she resisted the divorce, because she thought that fracture in the family would lead to problems and complications for her boys,” he says.
The former butler and author continues that although they grew up in a “similar world,” royal life wasn’t as easy for Prince Harry as it was for William. “It was a lot easier and plain sailing for William,” Burrell says. “His map was already made, and Harry’s wasn’t. So, it was a complicated relationship, but their childhood was the idyllic part of it.”
