PRINCE Harry and William have been arguing for the past 18 months, Tom Bradby has claimed.
The journalist also denied he negotiated ITV’s rights for Harry and Meghan Markle’s explosive Oprah interview.
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He told The Times the princes’ relationship “slowly descended into something that was difficult – personally and publicly – really over the past year and a half”.
It comes after a tense few years for the brothers – reportedly falling out over Megxit last year, after Harry revealed in a 2019 interview with Mr Bradby they were already “on different paths”.
The journalist has been close with both brothers for a number of years, chosen to carry out William and Kate’s engagement interview and the host of a documentary filming the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes trip to South Africa.
But amid tensions between the brothers it has been reported William ended his 20-year friendship with Mr Bradby.
The Duke of Cambridge reportedly feels “let down” by the high profile journalist’s relationship with his brother.
According to reports, senior royal aides were not happy with Bradby and ITV News’ reporting on Harry and Meghan’s split from the royal family.
Mr Bradby said: “It used to be quite a straightforward thing, right, because they weren’t arguing and life was simple.
“And then it just slowly descended into something that was difficult – personally and publicly – really over the past year and a half.”
FRACTURED FRIENDSHIPS
He said he asked Meghan how she was doing on that South Africa trip in the now famed interview, because he noticed the pair weren’t in great shape mentally.
Harry & Meghan: An African Journey followed the The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their son Archie on their travels to the continent in 2019.
Bradby followed the couple, and five-month-old Archie, throughout their African tour which saw Prince Harry undertake solo engagements.
At one point he asked her directly if it is fair to say that it had been a struggle being a new mum and a royal, to which a clearly emotional Meghan replied: “Yes.”
Speaking to The Times about his own mental health issues, Bradby said it made him aware of the royal couple’s state of mind during their Africa tour.
He said that he “was clearly influenced by my own experience and I didn’t think they were in great shape, and so I altered the way I was planning to do the documentary”.
“I don’t regret doing that. There may be other times in the future in a whole range of subjects that I will alter my approach if I sense something similar.”
He said that he could not do his job without “a reasonable degree of empathy” and in the case of Meghan “I felt like there was an untold story there”.
“And I decided to try to bring that side out,” said the ITN journalist.
Bradby also said princes are “my least favourite subject in the world” and if you had to build society from scratch you wouldn’t include a monarchy though “monarchy plays quite a valuable part”.
