ROYAL fans watched as Prince Harry and Prince William appeared to make the first steps in repairing their relationship at Prince Philip’s funeral – but was it all for show?
Experts have claimed the seemingly-touching photos of the brothers amicably chatting together were simply a “well-crafted sham”.
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After the ceremony in April, the feuding siblings talked as they walked away from St George’s Chapel in their first reunion since Harry’s bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview.
It seemed to be a hopeful first step towards a reconciliation, but royal historian Robert Lacey said in his book Battle of Brothers, serialised in Times2, tensions were actually extremely frosty.
He said: “It was not by accident that neither Anne [the Princess Royal] nor Sophie [the Countess of Wessex] exchanged a public word with Harry in the course of the afternoon.
“People felt incensed by what they saw as the calculated and focused cruelty of the TV interview and by the hypocrisy of Meghan — relating so brightly to Oprah how she had phoned the Queen to show her concern about Philip’s condition without even considering, apparently, the impact that their televised catalogue of grievance might have upon the invalid’s morale and health.”
As they removed their black facemasks, lip readers claim that Harry told his brother that the funeral service “was as he wanted”, according to Express, referring to the late Duke of Edinburgh, who passed away at the age of 99 on April 9.
It’s claimed the Duke of Cambridge, 39, said in response, “yes, it was great, wasn’t it” as they walked behind Prince Philip’s coffin before the service at Windsor Castle.
Despite the small talk, body language expert Judi James told Fabulous that there is more to the photos from the funeral day than meets the eye.
She explained: “The body language cues at the funeral suggested we were watching a well-crafted sham.
“Why well-crafted? Because the brothers avoided the kind of over-congruent ‘denial’ display pitched solely at the cameras that Kate and Meghan performed as they chatted together like best friends on the Xmas Day walk to the church at Windsor.
“Formulaic and more emphatic rituals like that always tend to look over-performed, whether it’s a cheating celebrity locking lips with their wife to prove all is well in the marriage or two sisters-in-law trying to signal all is pally after rumours of a tearful falling out.”
Judi said there was “no flicker of acknowledgement from either brother as they walked in the line-up at the exit” and it was only when Kate intervened did they speak to one another.
She added: “The PR gesture looked prompted by Kate and had an almost convincing air of spontaneity as she displayed a skillful talent for choreography, falling back to ‘collect’ Harry to deliver him to her husband’s side so that she could then fall back alone to leave them to perform some lackluster but mildly convincing chat rituals.
“As a first greet after all the bitterness of the Oprah interview then it looked more like a scrap of sticking plaster that William appeared reluctant to apply to their wounds.
“It worked well as a gesture after the deeply emotional funeral but there were no real signs to suggest the men were doing anything more than playing together nicely in public while Kate and Sophie kept a close eye on them from a few feet behind.”
Robert claimed that William, Harry and Charles didn’t have a private two-hour conference after the funeral to try and move forwards as a family.
The royal author said this was partly due to the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge fearing that any conversation would be publicly leaked by Harry.
He wrote: “They told friends that they could see no point in talking to Harry, since any discussion of substance would go straight back to Meghan to be leaked out via Oprah or some other tentacle of the Sussex network that had not stopped spreading stories in the weeks since the interview that the couple’s friends had promised would be their final word.”
Robert claimed that Charles headed to Wales to mourn at his Llandovery estate, and William and Kate went home to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis in Kensington.
Meghan, 39, who was heavily pregnant with daughter Lilibet at the time, made “every effort” to travel from the US with her husband but didn’t receive medical clearance from her physician, a Buckingham Palace spokesman confirmed.
Harry flew back to be by her side in their £11million Santa Barbara mansion shortly after the funeral.
Royal author Phil Dampier previously told The Celeb Report Online: “One of Charles and Williams’ big fears is that whatever discussions they have with Harry are immediately leaked.
“They will be worried that if they get into any great detail, the next thing they know it will be out in the public domain, which makes it extremely difficult to heal the wounds long-term.”
In his March interview with Oprah, Harry made a number of explosive claims about his family, alleging William and Charles are “trapped” as royals.
The Duke of Sussex said he “didn’t see a way out” of the Firm and later admitted his relationship with his dad Prince Charles and brother Prince William was strained.
He even claimed his 72-year-old father stopped taking his calls after Megxit.
And he said he felt “really let down” by his father, saying: “He knows what pain feels like.
“Of course I will always love him but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that.”
Harry said he loved his brother William to bits but admitted they were on “different paths”.
Despite their feud, Harry and William are expected to be reunited for the unveiling of a statue dedicated to Princess Diana on what would have been her 60th birthday.
The pair are due at Kensington Palace in London on July 1 — their first meeting since Philip’s funeral in April.
Royal commentator Angela Levin said in the days after Philip’s funeral that any private conversations with the couple would appear on social media or in the press “in no time”.
And Prince Harry ‘to return to the UK in the next 24 hours’ for Princess Diana memorial so he can isolate for ten days.
