According to a book, Prince William warned brother Prince Harry about taking things slowly in the early days of his romance with Meghan Markle – but it didn’t go to plan

The feud between Prince William and Prince Harry has been raging for many years now.

Rumours of a rift first began to circulate not long after Harry married wife Meghan Markle and in 2019, the younger brother all but confirmed a falling out during an ITV documentary, where he said he and William were on ‘different paths’. There have seemingly been many flashpoints in the pair’s frosty relationship over the past few years – and according to a book, one came when William tried to offer some brotherly advice to his younger sibling, but things didn’t quite go to plan.

In the Harry and Meghan biography, Finding Freedom, it says that William feared his brother had been “blindsided by lust” in his bid to marry Meghan. The co-authors claim the Duke of Sussex was angered by what he perceived as his brother’s ‘snobbish’ attitude to his bride. Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie claim Harry was offended by William’s unwanted advice to “take as much time as you need to get to know this girl”.

According to the pair, William was happy for his brother, but “just wanted to make sure that Harry wasn’t blindsided by lust”. But his younger brother allegedly took offence and got angry with the phrase ‘this girl’, and interpreted it as “snobbish and condescending”.

With William and Harry being at loggerheads for years, the Princess of Wales was once seen as the peacemaker tipped to help them bury the hatchet. However, Harry then turned on his sister-in-law in his controversial memoir Spare. In the book and in several interviews to promote it, he accuses Kate of “stereotyping” his wife Meghan, saying her behaviour created a barrier and shared details of a row over bridesmaids’ dresses at the time of his wedding, which left Meghan in tears.

Now former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond says Kate was hurt and insulted by the attacks by Harry and Meghan – and it’s unlikely their feud will be fixed any time soon. Speaking to OK!, she said: “When you come from a happy, united family – as Catherine does – it’s incredibly hard to understand how people can become estranged.

“I think she believed the rift could be fixed and, after Prince Philip’s funeral, we saw her talking with Harry and obviously encouraging William to do the same. But we now know that it didn’t work. In fact, William and Harry had a blazing row right after the funeral. There comes a point when you just have to accept that happy families are not a game that everyone can play.

“Catherine has been hurt and insulted by things that Harry and Meghan have said, but she and William are a very strong team, and I suspect that, together, they’ve come to the conclusion that the rift with Harry cannot be fixed in the foreseeable future. They’ve closed their minds to that possibility and decided to get on with their lives.”