Prince William never discouraged Prince Harry from attending Lord Fellowes funeral this week, an insider has claimed.
The Prince of Wales was seemingly uninterested in putting aside the brothers’ differences at their uncle’s memorial service on Thursday.
William was reportedly unwilling to engage with the 39-year-old as the brothers walked “a few people apart” when leaving St Mary’s Church in Snettisham, Norfolk.
However, despite fraught fraternal relations with his younger brother, the father-of-three was described by a source as “always doing the right thing”.
Prince William with an inset of Prince Harry
PA
“[Harry’s] appearance came as a surprise to most people, I think,” the source told The Daily Mail.
“I couldn’t say what the ins and outs were, but what I can tell you is that Prince William is a decent guy.
“He would understand that his brother wanted to be there and that [his invitation] would be a matter for the Spencer family.
“I am sure he would have been warned beforehand and would have taken it in his stride. He is good at compartmentalising things like that.
“Don’t forget it was his [William’s] idea, despite everything that had happened, to ask Harry and Meghan to join himself and Catherine for that walkabout at Windsor after Queen Elizabeth died.
Lord Robert Fellowes, pictured with the late Queen and then-Prince Charles PA“He did that knowing what his brother had done and that he planned to bring out his book.
“But he will always do the right thing in the circumstances.”
Despite being lauded for not discouraging his brother from returning to the UK, Prince William appears unlikely to reconcile his differences with his brother.
Former BBC correspondent Michael Coles, a regular commentator on GB News, warned the Duke of Sussex’s “betrayals and snipes” were a key reason behind relations remaining fraught.
Prince William and Prince Harry kept their distance
Getty
“As things are at present,” Coles told MailOnline, “reconciliation may never happen, such is the hurt Prince William feels at his brother’s betrayals and snipes in interviews, a television series and his ghost-written book ‘Spare’, the biggest-selling ‘autobiography’ ever published.”
Lord Fellowes was Princess Diana’s brother-in-law and worked as a long-time Buckingham Palace courtier.
He died at the age of 82 and a private funeral of a handful of close family was held on Monday.
A larger memorial including 300 friends and family took place on Thursday.