Prince Harry and Prince William's royal rift – Timeline
LONDON – For much of their lives, Prince William and Prince Harry did almost everything together. From royal events to sporting matches to gliding down ski slopes as kids on vacation, rarely did the public see one without the other.
At the ages of 15 and 12, the brothers walked shoulder-to-shoulder behind their mother Princess Diana's coffin in 1997. It was an image that shattered hearts around the world but that underscored their closeness.
When William began dating Kate Middleton, now known as Princess Kate, their duo became a trio, with Harry accompanying the lovebirds to official engagements and glitzy ceremonies as the flame-haired third wheel.
But that once sweet brotherly bond is now in tatters and has been for several years. The two estranged princes – now fathers and husbands – have only seen one another a handful of times in the last four years. With Harry's anticipated return to the UK this week, much interest surrounds the very public royal rift and many are wondering if the brothers will reunite.
Here's a look back at how things got so bad.
2018: The royal 'fab four' is born
After years of third-wheeling, Prince Harry found love with Meghan Markle and proposed to her in November 2017. In 2018, the pair were married at a lavish ceremony in Windsor. Charles, who was then prince, escorted Meghan down the aisle amid tensions with her father, Thomas Markle, who was also in bad health at the time.
The royal trio of William, Harry and Kate had become what the British tabloids deemed "the fab four," with the group forming their own charity, "The Royal Foundation" and delighting the public whenever the princes and their partners stepped out together.
That same year, a string of royal events followed, with the group attending Trooping the Colour in June, which marked Queen Elizabeth II's official 92nd birthday. A month later they all appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force. In December, the four attended the traditional royal Christmas church service at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
On the surface, they were closer than ever.
2019: Cracks begin to show
In June 2019, Meghan and Harry split from "The Royal Foundation," their joint charity with William and Kate, saying they would be launching their own charitable foundation.
It did not take long for the "fab four" moniker to disintegrate. British media reports frequently pitted the royal women against one another, reporting they clashed over some of Harry and Meghan's wedding plans and that animosity was growing between both houses.
"Very quickly it became Meghan vs. Kate," Harry told Britain's ITV News in an interview in October 2019. He acknowledged that he and William had drifted apart, were not seeing each other very often and that they were "certainly on different paths."
"As brothers you have good days, you have bad days," he said, noting that the "majority of stuff" written about their relationship is "created out of nothing."
2020: 'Megxit'
Harry and Meghan started 2020 with a bang, announcing in January they were stepping back from their roles as senior royals, citing plans to become "financially independent" and split their time between Britain and North America.
The move was unprecedented, stunning much of Britain and even reportedly blindsiding then-reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth. "They didn't even tell the queen," read the front page of the Daily Mirror. Their decision was swiftly dubbed "Megxit," a play on Brexit, Britain's exit from the European Union and another polarizing moment in British history.
"My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan's desire to create a new life as a young family," read a statement from the queen. "Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life."
In March 2020, Harry and Meghan carried out their final royal engagement alongside William and Kate before heading to Canada and then California to start a new life.
The palace agreed to a 12-month review of the decision, to see if some common ground could be reached. It could not.
2021: The Oprah interview
In February 2021, one month before Harry and Meghan sat down for a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, Buckingham Palace announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would lose their last royal patronages and honorary military titles.
"While all are saddened by their decision" not to come home and return to royal duties, they "remain much loved members of the family," the palace said.
In March, CBS aired a 90-minute interview with the pair who, in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, alleged racism within the royal family and indifference to Meghan's suicidal pleas for help. The pair revealed that a royal family member had expressed "concern" when Meghan, who's biracial, was pregnant about how dark their son's skin color might be. The pair did not name the family member but later confirmed it was not the Queen or her husband, Prince Philip.
Meghan also shot down reports that, in the lead-up to her wedding to Harry, she made Princess Kate cry. It was in fact, the other way around, she told Oprah. "She made me cry. It hurt my feelings," Meghan said, confirming that the subject was flower girl dresses.
Harry shared he was cut off from his family's money in the first quarter of 2020 and that it was his inheritance from Diana that helped him build a new life across the pond. He said he felt let down by his father's handling of the situation.
The interview sent the British tabloids into a frenzy, with the Daily Mail roaring "WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?" their claims forced William to defend the family, telling a reporter, "We're very much not a racist family."
2022: Queen Elizabeth dies
Before Queen Elizabeth died in September 2022, Britain spent the summer celebrating her 70-year reign. Meghan, Harry and their two children Archie and Lilibet, flew to the U.K. to join the celebrations. The family has not been back to Harry's home country together since.
Harry and Meghan attended the queen's funeral, under the glare of the ever watchful British tabloids. The brothers, united in grief, walked shoulder-to-shoulder behind the late monarch's coffin and sat together with their wives during the service. Harry, classed as a non-working royal, did not where military uniform.
While some interpreted walking behind their grandmother's coffin alongside one another as a step toward unity, Harry later told Anderson Cooper that as the royals raced to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to be with the queen in her final moments, he felt abandoned by his brother who did not offer him a seat on the plane.
By the time Harry reached Balmoral on his own, his grandmother was dead.
2023: Harry releases tell-all autobiography 'Spare'
Harry did not hold back when writing his 2023 autobiography "Spare," accusing William of assaulting him during an argument over Meghan in 2019. He also documented his partying and subsequent drug use and how he struggled to accept his mother's tragic death.
"It all happened so fast. So very fast," Prince Harry wrote of the incident with William. "He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor."
The book detailed how Harry and William weren't actually each others' best men at their weddings and that their rift had been bubbling under the surface since their school days. The prince wrote how he and William begged their father not to marry Camilla and that Charles joked he wasn't Harry's "real father."
In the book, Harry said his father pleaded with him and William in 2020, "Please, boys – don't make my final years a misery."
At the May 2023 coronation of King Charles, Harry attended without his wife or children. Inside the ceremony at London's Westminster Abbey, he sat two rows behind his brother. It was the first time the prince was seen publicly with members of the royal family since the release of "Spare."
2025: King Charles holds in-person meeting with Harry
In September, Harry and his father held their first face-to-face meeting in over a year at Clarence House in London, where the king and queen live. Their first meeting in 19 months lasted less than an hour and was widely seen as a possible first step toward ending a much-publicized rift.
Before the September meeting took place. Harry last saw his father in February 2024, shortly after it was announced that the monarch was undergoing treatment for cancer, though the palace never specified the type.
In "Spare," Harry reflected that Charles "wasn't great at showing emotions under normal circumstances" and that there had been a tense confrontation with Charles and William at the funeral of Prince Philip.
In recent years, Harry has expressed hope for a family reconciliation.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Prince Harry and Prince William's royal rift – Timeline
Reporting by Jennifer Hassan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 3:02 PM.