Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry during "The Patron's Lunch" celebrations for The Queen's 90th birthday in 2016 in London. Photo / Getty Images
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry during "The Patron's Lunch" celebrations for The Queen's 90th birthday in 2016 in London. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
The royal family has some strange traditions when it comes to presents. Christmas means gag gifts for the adults, like when Prince Harry naughtily gave the Queen a shower cap emblazoned with "Ain't life a bitch".
Meanwhile, on milestone birthdays or anniversaries Her Majesty often doles out shiny regal honours, for example when Prince Edward got a jazzy new Scottish title making him the Earl of Forfar when he turned 55. (Let's all politely assume such presents are truly sentimental offerings and not driven by the fact One is too cheap to fork out for a Fortnum & Mason gift card.)
Over the weekend a new and very curious royal gift emerged, with the Daily Mail's Richard Eden revealing that William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have given Prince Harry's Invictus Games Foundation more than $1 million.
Eden reports that in 2020, the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge transferred £560,984 (or $1.11 million) to Invictus, the charity that Harry founded to support veterans.
In fact, thanks to the Cambridges' largesse, Invictus pulled in $3.54 million last year, a very tidy improvement over 2019 when that figure was barely $2.09 million.
Now, this is quite the turn up for the books given that Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex have spent much of this year indulging in a lot of highly public kvetching about just how wretched royal life supposedly was.
William, Kate, Meghan, and Harry arrive to attend Christmas Day Church service at Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate in 2018. Photo / Getty Images
In March, they popped up on global TV screens to allege The Firm acted with a callousness bordering on outright cruelty in regards to Meghan's mental health along with raising claims of institutional racism.
In mid-May Harry appeared to criticise his father Prince Charles' parenting and said he wanted to "break the cycle" of "pain or suffering."
When his debut TV show, "The Me You Can't See", was released later that month accused the royal family of "total neglect".
Things were reportedly so strained between the two brothers that in the lead-up to Prince Philip's funeral, William requested that their cousin Peter Phillips be pressed into service and made to walk between the two princes as part of the ceremonial procession.
To suggest that things between William and Harry might be frosty these days is a bit like saying the Titanic took on a spot of water.
While it is not known precisely when in 2020 the cash injection was made, it still would have been after the tumultuous events of January that year when the word "Megxit" lurched into the public lexicon and the dissident couple had bolted for the "freedom" of life in North America.
Things had already careened so far off the rails by January 13 that when the Queen, Charles, William and Harry sat down for the "Sandringham Summit" the Duke of Cambridge was reportedly so angry with his brother he would not eat with him before the meeting.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry during "The Patron's Lunch" celebrations for The Queen's 90th birthday in 2016 in London. Photo / Getty Images
Biographer Robert Lacey wrote in his excellent Battle of Brothers that: "The Queen had suggested the family should gather for lunch before their big pow wow in the library that afternoon, but [William] refused his grandmother's invitation. He would obviously turn up at 2pm for the meeting, he said, but he only wanted to talk business.
"The Prince himself has not confirmed his friends' speculation that he was so furious with his younger brother that he would not be able to endure the hypocrisy of smiling at him over lunch."
Come early March 2020, when the Sussexes returned to the UK for their final series of official engagements things had got so dire that when the two couples appeared in public for the final time together, it was an outing marred by sour faces and grim stoicism. Kate, who normally manages to beam her way through any event, looked so miserable one would have thought she had just found out Whistles was shutting down.
And yet it is against this backdrop of so much hurt, that it turns out William and Kate made such an incredible gesture to support Harry's charitable baby.
That even after quitting as working members of the royal family, even after the (alleged) tears, even after the brotherly fights and even after William was reportedly left so "astonished", "horrified" and "furious" when told about allegations Meghan had bullied staffers in 2018 (the duchess has strenuously denied the claims) that William and Kate would hand over so much dosh is astounding really.
That even after everything they were willing to part with seven-figures to support a cause so close to Harry's heart shows such a goodness of spirit.
If there is one thing this touching money move reinforces, it is that the Cambridges still seem to care deeply for the former Army captain.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend The Endeavour Fund Awards at Mansion House on March 5, 2020 in London. Photo / Getty Images
As a courtier told Eden: "Prince William and Kate always supported Harry's efforts to establish Invictus. They are delighted that it has been a success."
However, not all of William's moves to look out for his younger brother have proven quite so successful.
"Finding Freedom", the headline-grabbing biography which told Harry and Meghan's story with a heavily sympathetic bent, claimed that one particular William intervention played a central part in their relationship fracturing so badly.
Freedom's authors, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, claim that the elder prince sat the younger down for a heart to heart that backfired spectacularly.
"Don't feel like you need to rush this," William told Harry, according to Scobie and Durand. "Take as much time as you need to get to know this girl."
Harry is reported to have felt that the phrase "this girl" was "snobbish" and that the conversation left Harry "pissed off that his brother would ask such a thing".
After months – nay, years – of the William and Harry storyline being about hurt feelings and feuds, it is just so goddamn nice to have a good, heartwarming moment of generosity to write about.
Given that Harry still went on to do the Oprah interview after the Cambridges' donation proves a Coutts cheque can't fix everything but maybe sometimes money talks, and really loudly too.
• 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.
