The royal family were reportedly left reeling last summer when Prince Harry announced he would be releasing a memoir of his life later this year.
The news came just four months after Harry, 37, and wife Meghan Markle’s scathing attack on the royals during their March interview with Oprah Winfrey, and palace insiders have been on tenterhooks since, awaiting what is teased to be an explosive tell-all.
And last week, a former royal editor said Harry’s bombshell book “will go after Charles and Camilla and maybe William”.
This follows earlier reports that the Duke of Sussex has already been in contact with his late mother Princess Diana’s former friends – setting off alarm bells that he’s set to vilify his dad and “other woman”, Camilla.
But while several members of the firm are likely to come under fire, it’s thought the one person who will escape criticism is his sister-in-law, Kate Middleton.
Despite hitting out at his father and other royals since he and Meghan stepped back from the royal family in 2020 during a series of interviews and podcasts, Harry has not criticised his sister-in-law – although wife Meghan, 40, has taken shots at her, saying to Oprah that Kate had made her cry during an altercation over bridesmaids’ dresses in the lead-up to her wedding in 2018.
And now former royal editor and author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, Duncan Larcombe, tells Closer that Harry’s decision to steer clear of criticising Kate, 40, is because she is his greatest hope of reuniting with his family at some point.
“Leaving Kate from the memoir is a sign that she could be Harry’s last hope of healing the family rift. This will show that Kate is just a bridge that Harry won’t burn,” he says.
“It would be very sad if Harry were to turn on the person who not that long ago he described as ‘the sister he never had’. He and Kate had a deep bond.
“I think this is a signal that Kate could be the next royal he reaches out to make amends. Don’t forget that we saw with our own eyes that it was Kate who initiated conversations between the brothers at Prince Philip’s funeral [in April last year].”
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Prior to meeting Meghan, Prince Harry had famously been dubbed the “royal third wheel” after his close relationship with his brother Prince William and Kate saw the trio attending their royal engagements together, often laughing and joking and clearly sharing a strong bond.
Harry was also a frequent visitor when he lived close to his brother and Kate at Kensington Palace, and is said to have enjoyed popping over for his favourite meal of roast chicken.
The pair appealed to each other’s sillier sides, with Kate reportedly gifting Harry a “grow your own girlfriend” kit for Christmas before being one of the first members of the family to be introduced to his then-girlfriend Meghan.
Duncan adds, “Kate is also nurturing and she and William had children before Harry so ‘Uncle Harry’ was very much part of the family in those early years. There was absolutely nothing to suggest there were any underlying resentments or difficulties. William and Harry didn’t agree on everything but in Kate, Harry had someone who he could really open his heart to, share dilemmas with and ask for advice.”
And while Harry and Meghan’s choice to step down as working royals in January 2020 and their subsequent public allegations shocked the world, Duncan says Kate is said to have been “really upset and deeply hurt” by Meghan’s accusations that Kate made her cry ahead of their May 2018 wedding – not the other way around as it was previously reported.
“What we do know is that although she hasn’t said it herself, let’s say there’s no secret of the fact that Kate is just really sad and upset by the situation, and her reaction hasn’t been one of anger like William, it’s been one of deep hurt,” Duncan adds.
“Meghan was the driving force behind the reports that Kate made her cry, but we simply don’t know how much Harry was aware of what Meghan was going to say in advance. Body language experts have suggested that Meghan went off script, but what we do know is that Harry was seething at his brother at the time.”
He adds, “I’m not saying Harry regrets the Oprah show but I would be astonished if, deep down, he doesn’t bitterly regret the issues they will have caused for Kate.”
While initially when Meghan began dating Harry in 2016 it was thought that she and Kate would be close – with the two looking pally while attending Wimbledon together in 2018 – it quickly became apparent that the two women weren’t as close as hoped. Meghan’s biography Finding Freedom – which she and Harry admitted to contributing to via their lawyers meeting with the book’s authors – claimed that “Meghan was disappointed that she and Kate hadn’t bonded over the position they shared”, adding that Meghan wanted Kate to support her during her “difficult times with the press”.
And Duncan says that he can’t imagine Meghan being overjoyed at Harry’s allegiance to Kate. He says, “It’s perception but I imagine the last person Meghan would want Harry to be talking to is Kate. She would not want Harry and Kate to have that brotherly sisterly relationship because Meghan’s world revolves around Meghan. I think she struggled with Kate, because she really was a very hard act to follow, an almost impossible one.
“They never hit it off, and Finding Freedom claimed Meghan felt hurt at Kate’s lack of effort. So I think she’ll have genuine fears over Harry’s soft spot for Kate. It’s Harry’s choice how he plays this, but I can’t see him ever criticising Kate, even if Meghan disagrees. You can’t just erase everything Kate gave Harry – the support, advice, years of friendship.”