After releasing an emotional video to reveal the end of her chemotherapy earlier this month, we had another glimpse of Kate Middleton’s slow return to public life last weekend when she attended a church service at Balmoral during a much-needed weekend away with Prince William.
Yet while a huge sense of relief must have swept through the Royal Family, Kate’s gentle return clashed with another high-profile royal event – the expected return of Prince Harry to the UK on Monday 30 September, where he was due to attend The WellChild Awards in London in his role as patron, leaving his wife Meghan Markle back in California.
The royals have all but blacklisted Harry – reportedly excluding him from their summer Balmoral trip – but a source now tells Closer how Kate’s new perspective on life saw her reach out to him and arrange a secret meet-up during his trip to London, in a bid to heal their feud once and for all.
The insider says, ‘Kate’s been speaking to Harry on and off for the last few weeks in a desperate bid to try to salvage their bond and get to the root of what’s going on with him.
‘When she proposed the idea of meeting up, just the two of them, Harry immediately accepted – giving her hope that there could be a way to get through to him.
‘Kate had hoped that, through a deep heart-to-heart without Meghan’s presence, they could air out all their grievances and pain from the last few years, talk openly about everything and learn to move past all the hurt and put it behind them. She knows he’s been struggling and she wants to help him out of his misery.’
Ahead of marrying Meghan – with whom he shares children Archie, five, and Lilibet, three – in 2018, Harry, 40, had always been close to Kate, 42, calling her ‘the sister I never had’ and regularly playing ‘third wheel’ on her dates with William.
The two are also said to have shared a sense of humour, with Kate once buying Harry a ‘grow-your-own girlfriend’ kit. She is believed to have been a ‘mentor’ to Harry, who she saw as a younger brother.
And even now, the source adds, ‘Harry’s always had a huge amount of love and respect for Kate and while their relationship has soured over the years, he was one of the first people to reach out when her cancer diagnosis went public and vowed to support her privately in whatever way he could.’
Harry made it clear in his memoir, Spare, that, through a series of clashes including their row over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress and an incident in which Kate ‘grimaced’ at Meghan’s request to borrow her lipgloss, no love has been lost between Kate and Meghan, 43.
And while Harry has always been fiercely protective of Meghan, the source says Kate still deeply cares for him, with reports suggesting that she was the driving force behind wishing him a happy birthday from her and William’s official social media account for his 40th birthday earlier this month.
Now the source says that, following rumours that Harry is ‘homesick’, Kate was keen to reach out.
The source adds, ‘Kate’s noticed how Harry’s walls seem to have broken down more since they’ve been chatting and she’s revealed that it’s clear he has struggled to adapt to life in California – giving more weight to the rumours that he wants to return to the UK.
‘William was initially furious when Kate told him they’d been communicating and it caused a huge amount of tension between them. But he knows this could finally be the answer in getting through to his brother and stopping this feud.’
But with Harry’s allegations that William, 42, assaulted him during an argument about Meghan still hanging between the brothers – who haven’t spoken since the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022 – the source says Kate insisted that she meet Harry alone.
They say, ‘Kate banned him from attending the meet-up – insisting it needed to be just the two of them. She reminded William of the close bond she and Harry always had and of her ability to get him to listen to her.’
And after experiencing their toughest year yet as a family following Kate’s cancer diagnosis in March and King Charles’ own battle with an undisclosed cancer, the source says Kate feels that now is the time to start a type of new chapter and put the past four years of toxic rows behind them.
The source adds, ‘Of course her biggest hope is that this will pave the way to reconnecting the brothers and helping them to start repairing their relationship, as well as stopping Harry from firing shots at them publicly, of course.
‘Kate knows how much Harry regrets a lot of things that have been said and done, and she’s praying that this meeting will help them draw a line under it all and get to the root of Harry’s deep pain and animosity towards them.’