Prince William addresses Harry's Meghan Markle statement with official statement of his own

Prince William was reportedly deeply unhappy over his younger brother's decision to issue an unprecedented public statement about his new girlfriend, Meghan Markle. Photo / Getty Images

Late last week reports were circulating that Prince William was unimpressed with his brother Harry's decision to issue an official statement about harassment of his new girlfriend, Meghan Markle.

In case you missed it, earlier this month in an unprecedented move, Harry released an official statement through Kensington Palace asking people to give Markle, his "girlfriend" of a "few months" some space.

He added that the 35-year-old Suits actor had faced "the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments".

Harry had been secretly dating Markle since June, when they met at the Invictus Games in Toronto, the Paralympics-esque event he created.

Various media outlets have since reported that William was "dismayed" by his "hot-headed" brother making such a statement about his private life.

A source told the Mail Online: "He thinks Harry made a mistake in confirming the relationship and releasing such an emotional statement so soon.

"William knows that his brother can be hot-headed and understands that it is something he felt very strongly about. Privately, he shares a lot of the sentiments he and Meghan expressed as, make no mistake, she was very involved in the statement too."

The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William. Photo / Pool

But these rumours have been slammed by Prince William himself, after he put out his own official statement through Kensington Palace. And it would seem he gave his brother his blessing to address the matter in such an upfront way.

It said simply: "The Duke of Cambridge absolutely understands the situation concerning privacy and supports the need for Prince Harry to support those closest to him."

A royal source explained to The Telegraph: "They [the brothers] don't issue statements like that without talking to each other, and they talked about the Meghan Markle statement extensively in advance of it being put out.

"The Duke was as alarmed as anyone about what was happening with Meghan.

"No-one wanted to have to put that statement out, including Prince Harry, and there was concern about confirming the relationship.

"But over the course of one weekend things escalated to the extent that Prince Harry felt he had to act."