Prince Harry and Prince William ‘Cannot Bear To Be in the Same Room Together, Here's Why

The Diana Legacy Awards Ceremony, which was conducted in honor of the late Princess Diana on March 14 in London, was attended separately by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex. The prizes were then given to each winner by Prince William. Following his resignation from the royal family in 2020, Prince Harry, who now lives in Montecito, California, with his bride Meghan Markle, participated digitally at the event and had virtual conversations with guests. 

As reported by The Mirror, Tom Quinn, a royal specialist and novelist revealed that the occasion was specifically planned to keep the rival brothers apart. Quinn revealed, "William and Harry just cannot bear to be in the same room together because they have said unforgivable things to each other, but they are also conscious that if they did attend the Diana event together, the world would be watching for the inevitable awkwardness, the inevitable coldness and refusal to look into each other’s eyes."

Since the Diana Award's founding in 1999, the royal brothers have been heavily connected with it; Harry even surprised last year's awardees at a lecture before the presentation. However, it has been a while since the two attended the event together. They also made separate appearances in 2021, this time with Harry joining in via video chat and William attending in person.

Quinn also added, "William and Harry just don’t want the headlines that would inevitably follow a meeting that showed anything less than a warm embrace and a warm embrace is something they know they can’t do. Photographs of the two brothers looking awkward and cold, and avoiding each other’s eyes would look exactly like those terrible pictures of their parents in the run-up to their split."

Following Harry's marriage to Meghan Markle, William and Harry had a falling out, and in 2020 they chose to separate from one another as senior royals. The brothers' relationship only became more tense when Harry and Meghan wrote their book, Spare, in which he discusses, among other things, how he always felt inferior to William, and after Harry and Meghan made a Netflix documentary about their difficult period as royal family members.

These past few months have been quite difficult for the royal family. Eyes are on Kate Middleton as she recovers from a scheduled abdominal operation she had in January, and on King Charles III, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February and is still not performing royal responsibilities. Earlier that month, Kensington Palace had announced in a formal statement that Middleton's anticipated recuperation period would prevent her from taking on her own royal responsibilities until after Easter. In the meanwhile, Harry has said time and time again that he wants to patch things up with his brother.

According to CBS News, Harry during their 60 Minutes interview, told Anderson Cooper, "You know, my brother and I love each other. I love him deeply. There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years. None of anything that I've written, anything that I've included is ever intended to hurt my family. But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers."