Plus: Prince Harry counts his security guard as one of his best friends, a report alleges, William and George take flight, and James Middleton’s dog returns to public life.
Published Sep. 15, 2024 8:32AM EDT
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Happy birthday, brother
There was a major breakthrough in the broken relationship between warring royal brothers Prince Harry and Prince William Sunday, as Kate Middleton and William took to social media to wish the exiled prince a happy 40th birthday.
The dramatic gesture will fuel hopes that the brothers may yet be able to reconcile after King Charles also publicly wished Harry a happy birthday Sunday morning, in what friends of the king told The Daily Beast was a “significant olive branch.”
Kate and William’s message said simply, “Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to The Duke of Sussex!”
The message, posted to Kensington Palace social media channels, also reposted a message sent earlier by the king which contained a slightly different text, reading, “Wishing the Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!”
A friend of the king’s told The Daily Beast they expected Harry and Charles would speak by phone later in the day.
The friend said: “I am sure a call will be scheduled. They spoke on Charles’ birthday. This message is a significant olive branch from the king, and the ball is now in Harry’s court.”
Harry and the king’s relationship has been fraught in recent months, with sources close to Harry telling The Daily Beast that the king stopped taking Harry’s phone calls over the summer.
The king is thought to be profoundly irritated by Harry’s ongoing legal action against the British government seeking to get automatic security for him and his family when in the U.K. He was said to have been avoiding speaking or meeting with Harry out of a concern his son could try and lobby him to intervene in the matter, which could trigger constitutional concerns.
Prince William, left, and Prince Harry attend the opening of the Greenhouse Sports Centre in central London, April 26, 2018.
Toby Melville/Reuters/Pool
However, the relationship with the king looks positively friendly compared to that with William. The gulf between the brothers was dramatically illustrated by the fact they were in the same church last month for the funeral of their uncle, but didn’t speak to each other.
But there was widespread relief in Buckingham Palace when Harry’s publisher announced that the paperback edition of Spare, his mega-selling memoir, would not include any new material.
The breakthrough comes amid a British poll showing a huge rise in support for Prince Harry returning to royal duties—a third of Britons would support Prince Harry’s return a survey for the Mail on Sunday has revealed.
Lonely Harry’s “best friend” is his security guard
That Prince Harry,