Prince William and Prince Harry Divided by ‘Profound Rift’: Princess Diana ‘Would Have Tried to Act as Peacemaker’ (Exclusive)

“We all remember the days when Harry and William were joshing with one another, and it all seemed set for their relationship and the future — that Harry, as Diana always used to say, would be William’s wingman,” Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “It’s a great loss for the monarchy.”

The brothers grew up sharing a royal life and experience only they can understand, weathering their parents’ scandalous divorce and enduring the unbearable pain of losing Diana after a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, when her sons were 15 and 12. But now they’re worlds apart.
That separation extends to the next generation. In Windsor, William, 43, and Kate Middleton, 43, are raising Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7. Across the Atlantic in Montecito, Calif., Harry, 40, and Meghan Markle, 44, are raising Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4. The cousins have not been seen in public together since 2019, before Lilibet was born.
Their feud exploded into public view in 2020, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their royal duties.
“Things were said that sparked the initial rift, and it’s never healed,” Morton says.