A forthcoming book offers fresh insight into how the Prince and Princess of Wales responded in starkly different ways when Prince Harry announced his departure from senior royal duties in 2020.
The book, titled “William and Catherine: The Monarchy’s New Era: The Inside Story,” by Russell Myers, is set for release on March 10.
Myers chronicles the couple’s divergent reactions to the moment when Harry and Meghan Markle declared their intention to step back from their royal roles and divide their time between Britain and North America.
Excerpts published by The Mirror reveal Catherine took a notably different view from her husband regarding the family rupture.
A forthcoming book offers fresh insight into how the Prince and Princess of Wales responded in starkly different ways when Prince Harry announced his departure from senior royal duties in 2020.
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According to Myers, the Princess of Wales demonstrated considerably less enthusiasm than William for convincing Harry to maintain his royal position.
Catherine’s reasoning centred on what she perceived as an unavoidable outcome stemming from the brothers’ fundamentally different positions within the monarchy.
Myers wrote that “she believed William and Harry’s fundamental differences as the ‘heir and the spare’ had created the inevitability of Harry wanting more from his role than being a bit-part player.”
This perspective suggests Catherine recognised that Harry’s secondary status would ultimately prove unsustainable, making his desire for greater independence a predictable consequence of the royal hierarchy.
According to Myers, the Princess of Wales demonstrated considerably less enthusiasm than William for convincing Harry to maintain his royal position.
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William’s emotional response stood in sharp contrast to his wife’s pragmatic acceptance of the situation.
Myers noted that “William was intensely saddened at his brother’s decision to quit.”
The author described how the brothers had been growing apart for years, yet William understood this moment represented a point of no return.
“Fond memories of their childhood, from helping each other through the tragedy of their mother’s death, to growing up in the public eye, were now tarnished by the division at the heart of the family,” Myers wrote.
William’s emotional response stood in sharp contrast to his wife’s pragmatic acceptance of the situation.
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The shared experiences that once bound the siblings together had become overshadowed by their fractured relationship.
Following their departure, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex established their new life in California, Meghan’s home state, where they now reside with their children, Prince Archie, aged six, and Princess Lilibet, four.
Their initial hopes of maintaining partial royal involvement whilst achieving financial independence were swiftly dismissed at the so-called Sandringham summit, where Queen Elizabeth II made clear that a hybrid arrangement was not possible.
The brothers’ relationship has remained fractured in the intervening years, with tensions escalating following the Sussexes’ appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show, their Netflix documentary series, and Harry’s memoir.