New bombshell revelations have emerged about just how bad things have become. Photo / Getty
New bombshell revelations have emerged about just how bad things have become. Photo / Getty
OPINION:
On the day after Prince Philip's funeral in early April, when the eyes of the world were on Windsor as the Queen farewelled her husband and gaffe-generating other half of 73 years, the big story was That Conversation. Brothers Prince William and Prince Harry, whose years-long feud has long since become a mainstay of royal reporting, had actually spoken to one another without fists flying (or writs) and without Oprah anywhere in sight.
As they left St George's Chapel, and after a deft bit of manoeuvring by William's wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, the men had conveniently been left to speak to one another as they made their way back towards their grandmother's castle, in full view of the press. (Funny that.) Still, the moment was chalked up as a win for the side of fraternal bonds and healing.
However, a new book has cast the forensically dissected relationship between Harry and his family in a new and far more dismal light, with journalist Christopher Anderson claiming in Brothers And Wives: Inside The Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan that the now California-based royal and his father have not spoken since Philip's funeral.
Prince Charles and Prince Harry laugh during the Invictus Games Opening Ceremony on September 10, 2014. Photo / Getty Images
As of Wednesday, just in case you are wondering, that's 236 days.
What really dials up the pathos here is that it is hardly as if the past eight months have been plain sailing for the increasingly embattled Windsor clan, who have faced some high highs and some low lows.
If we take Anderson at his word, then that means father and son have not been in touch despite the life-changing events of this year. It was a nearly tearful Charles who spoke to the media after Philip's death saying, "I miss my father enormously." Meanwhile, in early June, Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex welcomed their second child, daughter Lilibet, after they suffered the devastation of a miscarriage last year.
One would think – or even hope – that such loss and such joy would be a reason to pick up the phone and to connect with those who are meant to be closest to you.
It is not just Harry and the Prince of Wales who remain on the outs, according to Anderson, who has told the Daily Beast: "William isn't returning Harry's calls."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle speak during the Global Citizen festival, September 25, 2021 in New York. Photo / Getty Images
None of this bodes well for anyone with money on a grand 2021 Windsor rapprochement, all group hugs and tearful reunions over a round of fortifying G&Ts. (Tony Blair revealed in his 2010 autobiography that the drinks served by the royal family are "true rocket fuel".)
In Brothers and Wives, Anderson plunges into some particularly controversial territory, offering up, for the first time, the explosive claim that it was Charles who first pondered the skin colour of the Sussexes' children, thus setting in motion events that ultimately led to Harry and Meghan basically flouncing out the door.
In Anderson's telling, the situation unfolds like this: It's the day the happy couple will announce their engagement. Our scene takes palace at Clarence House where Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall are sitting down to breakfast.
"I wonder what the children will look like?" he "mused", Anderson writes, at which point Camilla, "taken aback somewhat by the question", replied, "Well, absolutely gorgeous, I'm certain."
Charles, seemingly not having quite twigged that this was dangerous territory, went on to "lower his voice" before saying, "I mean, what do you suppose their children's complexion might be?"
Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle pictured together in 2018. Photo / Getty Images
Here, this conversation might have stayed, right over the couple's boiled eggs and soldiers if not for the fact that, as Anderson writes, "household staff members [were] circulating within earshot".
And it was via the downstairs grapevine that news of this conversation first reportedly reached Harry's ears who was, per Brothers and Wives, "told by one of the Men in Grey that there were 'apprehensions' about how dark a baby of his and Meghan Markle's might be – that if he or she was 'too brown,' it might look 'strange'."
The obvious question at this point is, what next? When or in fact how might Charles, William and Harry somehow find a way to bury the various hatchets and make up?
For Anderson, the window for that coming to pass is closing – and fast.
"If Charles, William and Harry can't find a way to make amends during the Queen's platinum jubilee next year, then it's doubtful they ever will," he has told the Daily Beast's royalist correspondent Tom Sykes.
He also argues that it is "highly doubtful that a Charles III will bestow the titles of 'prince' on Archie and 'princess' on Lilibet, or for that matter any titles at all".
(Hear that? That was the sound of one of Meghan's Diptyque candles being hurled at a wall.)
If Charles did take such an extraordinary step it would require him to re-work the 1917 Letters Patent put into place by King George V which governs how titles are handed out. If he did go down this path, it would be nothing short of a highly provocative move and one which he would undertake knowing that it would surely annihilate any chance of a real reconciliation with Harry and his family.
In all of this, keep in mind here that a spokesperson for Charles has told the New York Post: "This is fiction and not worth further comment."
Also bear in mind that Harry and Meghan, who have very itchy trigger fingers when it comes to calling in the lawyers when it comes to reporting about them, have remained staunchly silent this week and have not uttered a word of denial about Anderson's claims.
With the Sussexes now set for their third Christmas in North America, one more than the two they spent with his family back in Blighty, the trans-Atlantic schism between the two sides looks more entrenched than ever.
This would have all been manna from heaven for William Shakespeare and his eager quill, what with the maligned, misunderstood prince, the power-hungry fool of a father, and the woman trapped in their midst in a draughty castle. However, while ol' Will's oeuvre might have included 17 comedies, this tale would have unequivocally been one for the tragedy column.
• Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
