William and Harry should reconcile for the sake of the country – and sooner rather than later: As my own brother taught me, you never know how long you have left: PETER HITCHENS
Peter Hitchens, the Mail on Sunday columnist, has argued that Prince William should reconcile with Prince Harry for the sake of the country when he becomes King, drawing on his own experience of ending a long estrangement with his brother, the late Christopher Hitchens. Speaking on the Alas Vine & Hitchens podcast alongside Sarah Vine, Hitchens said the ongoing hostility between the brothers is doing "serious damage" and that reconciliation, both personal and public, is essential, even though reports suggest William currently has no appetite to patch things up with the Duke of Sussex.
Hitchens recounted how he and his brother fell out over religion and politics, eventually reconciling shortly before Christopher's death, and urged that such rifts be resolved "as soon as you can" rather than risking regret. He described initial gestures towards peace being rebuffed and a tense exchange of letters, but said the effort was ultimately worthwhile. William and Harry are believed to have last spoken at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in 2022, and Sarah Vine, who wrote about reconciling with her own father before he died, agreed that healing the royal rift matters more than the underlying grievance.
- Peter Hitchens urges William to reconcile with Harry for the country's sake
- He cites reconciling with his brother Christopher before his death
- William and Harry reportedly haven't spoken since the Queen's funeral in 2022
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Prince Harry and Prince William, once close as brothers, have been publicly estranged for several years, following tensions that grew after Harry and his wife Meghan stepped back from royal duties and moved to the United States in 2020. The rift deepened through a series of interviews, a memoir and other public statements in which grievances about royal life and family relationships were aired. The two brothers are widely reported to have last spoken in person at the funeral of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2022.
The question of whether they might reconcile matters because William is heir to the throne and will one day become King, with Harry remaining part of the wider royal family despite living apart from it. Commentators and royal watchers have periodically debated whether a public rift between such senior figures affects the monarchy's image or its ability to present a united front. Peter Hitchens, a long-standing newspaper columnist, has written and spoken about this question, drawing on his own experience of a personal family estrangement to make a wider point about the value of reconciliation.