RICHARD EDEN: The ‘Meghan problem’ and the overlooked reasons courtiers and friends tell me why William and Kate won’t welcome Harry back
The much-hyped reunion of Oasis rock stars Noel and Liam Gallagher has led to numerous calls for an even more prominent pair of estranged brothers to be formed to ‘get the band back together’.
While the musicians from Manchester play for the money, Prince William and Prince Harry would perform together on the world stage for the benefit of the monarchy, so the reasoning goes.
However, those who would ask King Charles’ sons to use the Gallaghers as an example of fraternal reconciliation have conveniently overlooked two important factors that have been highlighted to me in conversations with courtiers and royal friends over the past week.
Firstly, the Gallagher rapprochement was only agreed, reportedly, because of Noel’s divorce from his second wife, Sara MacDonald. The PR director was widely seen as the one standing in the way of an Oasis reunion. She and the irascible Liam had clashed repeatedly over the years, with Liam at one point comparing her and his brother to ‘like Fred and Rose West’.
Prince William, right, has refused to be drawn into a shouting match with his brother Harry
Noel Gallagher, left, openly exchanged insults with his brother Liam for years
Harry, on the other hand, is still happily married to Meghan. While the former American actress has not compared William and the Princess of Wales to serial killers, she has publicly claimed that Catherine made her cry and accused anonymous royals of being racists. The accused were later identified as Catherine and the king by Meghan’s cheerleader Omid Scobie.
The second overlooked factor is that Noel spent years publicly exchanging insults with his brother, calling him “the angriest man you’ll ever meet.” Noel added of the singer: “He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”
In contrast, William, like his wife, has refused to be drawn into a swearing match with his brother that would be unworthy of a future king. We have only glimpsed his anger at the insults he has been subjected to from across the Atlantic.
Who can remember the Prince of Wales forcefully declaring, “We are absolutely not a racist family,” when asked a question by a reporter during his first public appearance since Harry and Meghan’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021?
At one point, Liam compared Noel and his wife Sara MacDonald to Fred and Rose West
Unlike Noel and Sara MacDonald, Harry and Meghan are still happily married
Harry’s attendance at the Norfolk memorial service last week for his uncle Lord (Robert) Fellowes, who died in July aged 82, was the first time he had attended the same event as his brother since 2022. They then took part in an awkward walk around Windsor with their wives following the death of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.
Although fellow mourners said the brothers did not speak to each other at St Mary’s Church in Snettisham, their presence has sparked much speculation about a reconciliation between the two.
But none of the friends or courtiers I spoke to this week expected this to happen, at least not in the near future.
While his wife undergoes cancer treatment, a friend of William says there is one family member the prince would like to see appear in public again – and it’s not Harry.
“There will be no reunion until Harry and Meghan apologise to Their Royal Highnesses for everything they said,” a former courtier told me. “And there is no sign that that is likely.”
A friend of the royals told me: ‘It’s hard to see a reconciliation. How can it be when William and Catherine have a legitimate fear that anything they say could appear in a future book or be repeated on a TV programme?’
A friend of William’s told me this about Catherine, who is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer: ‘There is one family member William would like to see in public again, and it is not Harry.’
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