As the 28th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death nears, William and Harry remain estranged but continue to honor their mother through their public work
NEED TO KNOW
- Prince William and Prince Harry continue to honor their late mother, Princess Diana, through much of their public work and philanthropy
- Their painful feud remains “profound and long-lasting,” historian Robert Lacey tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story
- Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton calls the rift “a great loss for the monarchy”
On July 16, as the 28th anniversary of his mother Princess Diana’s death loomed, Prince Harry took a poignant walk through a minefield in Angola, retracing the brave steps Diana took nearly three decades ago to shine a light on the hidden horrors of war. Just weeks earlier, on what would have been their mother’s 64th birthday, July 1, Prince William honored her legacy in Sheffield, England, celebrating the second anniversary of Homewards — his mission to end homelessness, an issue Diana championed and introduced her sons to.
But what was once a shared mission to honor their mother now unfolds on separate paths, with no communication between them.
“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.
In his memoir Spare, Harry describes a tense 2019 confrontation where William criticized Meghan and, according to Harry, physically grabbed him by the collar, knocking him to the floor. The divide only deepened after the couple’s explosive 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, followed by their Netflix docuseries and Harry’s bestselling book — each delivering sharp criticism of William, King Charles, 76, Kate, 43, Queen Camilla, 78, and the institution they serve. “Some members of my family will never forgive me,” Harry admitted in May.
While Harry has spoken openly about his hope for reconciliation with his family, insiders say his calls and messages to William have gone unanswered.
Says Robert Lacey, author of Battle of Brothers: “The rift is very profound and very long-lasting. It will not be changed, in my opinion, until Harry makes a move and apologizes.”
Adds historian Amanda Foreman: “Everyone wants it to happen on their terms, but that’s what makes it impossible.”
Despite the gulf between them, the royal brothers remain united in one shared vow: to honor their mother’s memory. Their inspiration comes from Diana, who redefined royal life — not with pomp, but with genuine compassion. She didn’t just infuse their lives with normalcy through visits to amusement parks and burger joints; she also took them to shelters for the unhoused. One was London’s The Passage, whose CEO Mick Clarke says William’s “visits with his mom left a deep and lasting impression.”
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The prince, he adds, has spoken about how Diana “made it very pointed that he was exposed to life beyond palace walls. That is something that he and the princess are doing with their own children.” That grounding in service has shaped William’s public life. During the COVID pandemic he made unannounced trips to shelters, helping prepare meals and even delivering food — always without cameras.
Harry, meanwhile, found his calling in supporting young people affected by the AIDS epidemic in Lesotho, Southern Africa, where he was deeply moved by the challenges facing vulnerable youth. In 2006 he cofounded Sentebale — meaning “forget-me-not,” Diana’s favorite flower, in the local language —with his friend Prince Seeiso as a tribute to their late mothers.
Over the next 19 years, the two poured “blood, sweat and tears and their own money into building this charity up to what it was — a multimillion-pound charity that delivered nothing but good for the beneficiary community,” a friend tells PEOPLE.
After a deep dispute over management at Sentebale, devastatingly for Harry, and Seeiso, they have parted ways from the charity, and are seeking new ways to help the disadvantaged of Lesotho and Botswana.
Moreover, Tessy Ojo, CEO of the Diana Award — the only charity to bear their mother’s name, and one they now support separately — has witnessed the princes’ dedication firsthand.
“I’ve seen how they watch young people who never met their mother articulate the impact she’s had on them,” she says. “There is a sense of immense pride: ‘Wow, my mother did that!’”
Despite the emotional and physical distance between them, William and Harry have each created home lives grounded in a shared commitment to providing their children with a genuinely authentic upbringing — “and that is pure Diana,” says Foreman.
Both brothers have also honored their mother by giving their daughters her name as a middle name. They often speak of her to their children, and her photograph is displayed throughout their homes.
“The values they are instilling and discussing as families may be their best success,” Foreman adds. “They are both very good role models as parents.”
There are glimmers of hope for change within the royal family. On July 9, Harry’s representatives met with King Charles’s head of communications, raising hopes of a first step toward rapprochement — at least with his father.
A face-to-face meeting could happen as soon as September, when Harry is expected back in the U.K. to support WellChild, a charity helping children with life-limiting conditions. Whether that reunion will materialize, however, remains uncertain. If it does, it would be the first meeting between father and son since February 2024, shortly after Charles announced he was diagnosed with cancer.
William’s team, notably, was not involved in these discussions. For the Prince of Wales, priorities lie elsewhere: supporting his wife, who is recovering from cancer treatment, and guiding their young family through pivotal years — with attention to 12-year-old George, his heir.
With his focus clear, sources say, William’s anger has calcified into indifference about the situation, a friend told The Sunday Times in June.
Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith sees this as William accepting limits: “He can control what he does in his life, but he has no control over what Harry does,” she tells PEOPLE.
Adds historian Robert Lacey: “They both deeply believe that they’re fighting for profound points of principle.”
Though silence now divides them, Diana’s influence remains a strong bond that still shapes their every step.
“This is the sadness of it — they aren’t supporting each other like they should be,” says a source close to the royal household. “That’s what any mother would want — that they are there for each other.”
Adds Morton, whose latest book Winston and the Windsors, is out in October: “Diana always used to say she had two boys for a reason — the younger would be there to support the older in the lonely task as future King. There is no doubt Diana would have tried to act as a peacemaker between them. If she had been around, they would have worked things out in a different way.”
