Robert Lacey - Battle of Brothers: William and Harry – The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2020

Copyright Robert Lacey 2020

Cover image Getty Images.com/WPA Pool/Pool/Julian Parker/PA Photos

Robert Lacey asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Extracts from Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig reproduced by permission of Canongate Books Ltd. Copyright Matt Haig, 2018.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN: 9780008408510

Ebook Edition October 2020 ISBN: 9780008408527

Version: 2020-10-08

To my brother,

Graham

and also to my darling

Jane and Scarlett

who inspired me every day

1st section

Prince and Princess of Wales at Highgrove with William and Harry, 1986 (Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images)

Prince Charles with Princess Anne, 1954 (Camera Press)

Prince of Waless wedding, 1981 (Lichfield Archive/Getty Images)

Lady Diana Spencer and Camilla Parker Bowles, 1980 (Express Newspapers/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Prince Harry and Prince William, 1985 (Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images)

Princess Diana with Princes William and Harry, 1997 (John Swannell/Camera Press)

Prince Harry at Trooping the Colour, 1989 (Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)

Diana in minefield, 1997 (Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images)

Princess Diana presenting polo trophy to James Hewitt, 1989 (Iain Burns/Camera Press)

Princess Diana in car with Dodi Fayed, 1997 (Sipa Press/Shutterstock)

Funeral service of Princess of Wales, 1997 (Jeff J. Mitchell/AFP/Getty Images)

Funeral of Princess of Wales with flowers, 1997 (Wayne Starr/Camera Press)

2nd section

Prince William at Eton, 2000 (Anwar Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)

Prince William and Kate Middleton at St Andrews University, 2005 (Royal/Alamy Stock Photo)

Kate Middleton on catwalk, 2002 (Malcolm Clarke/Daily Mail/Shutterstock)

Wedding of Prince William, 2011 (George Pimentel/Getty Images)

Wedding of Prince of Wales, 2005 (Hugo Burnand/Getty Images)

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Lindo Wing with Prince George, 2013 (Alan Chapman/Film Magic/Getty Images)

Making a Difference Together, 2018 (Goff Photos.com)

Fab Four at Sandringham, 2017 (Karen Anvil/Goff Photos.com)

Kate and Meghan at Wimbledon, 2019 (Karwai Tang/Getty Images)

Queen at Christmas, 2019 (Steve Parsons/Getty Images)

Prince William, Kate Middleton and their children at Trooping the Colour, 2019 (JS/Dana Press Photos/PA Images)

3rd section

Prince Harry in Afghanistan, 2008 (PA Photos/Topfoto)

Prince Harry in car after hospital visit, 1988 (Mirrorpix)

Princes in Botswana, 2010 (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Meghan and family (News Licensing)

Meghan Markle in Suits, Season 1, 2011 (Frank Ockenfels/Alamy Stock Photo)

Meghan and her mother on their way to the wedding, 2018 (Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images)

Prince Charles with Doria Ragland and the Duchess of Cornwall, 2018 (Jane Barlow/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Duchess of Sussex and Queen Elizabeth II, 2018 (Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)

Meghan with women of the Hubb Community Kitchen, 2018 (Christmas Jackson/Getty Images)

Prince Harry, Meghan and their son Archie, 2019 (Dominic Lipinski-WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Meghan with Archie and Desmond Tutu, 2019 (Toby Melville/Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Prince Harry on Abbey Road, 2020 (Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Commonwealth Day Service, 2020 (Phil Harris/Getty Images)

Cartoons

Harry and Meghans expulsion from Eden (Morten Morland/News Licensing)

The Queen writing to Roddy Llewellyn (Courtesy of the Mark Boxer Estate)

Royal infidelities featuring Charles, Camilla, Diana and James Hewitt (Mirrorpix/Reach Licensing)

Crocodile tears of the media (Chris Riddell/Guardian News & Media)

Im having a ghastly nightmare by Cummings (Reproduced with kind permission of the Cummings family)

Fergies toe-licking (Tom Johnston/News Licensing)

Harrys paternity (Ben Coppin, animator and illustrator)

Tidal wave of flowers on Dianas death (Gerald Scarfe/News Licensing)

Diana as Queen of Hearts (Peter Brookes/News Licensing)

The Queen gives orders to James Bond (Ben Coppin, animator and illustrator)

Camilla and Charles as potted and potty (Peter Brookes/News Licensing)

Camilla and Charles Gotcha! (Reproduced with the permission of Private Eye Magazine)

Harry in Afghanistan (Peter Brookes/News Licensing)

Queen and Philip respond to the Markles arrival (Peter Brookes/News Licensing)

Gallery of Prince Andrew scandal (Peter Brookes/News Licensing)

Sussex Royal commercialisation controversy (Morten Morland/News Licensing)

Harry and Meghans Souvenir Issue (Reproduced with the permission of Private Eye Magazine)

Allowing the Sussex Royal name (Peter Brookes/News Licensing)

He could have been the next Prince Andrew! (Morten Morland/News Licensing)

Harry and Meghan with zip masks (Paul Thomas/Daily Mail)

Harry and Meghan on coronavirus and the press (Morten Morland/News Licensing)

The pumpkin carriage (Peter Brookes/News Licensing)

There are disagreements, obviously, as all families have, and when there are, they are big disagreements.

(Prince William, BBC News, 19 November 2004)

Talk to each other, for Gods sake! That was the way Diana had raised her boys to get their feelings fully out in the open in a direct fashion, not stumbling and mumbling into their emotional cups of tea like so many other members of the Windsor clan. Never complain, never explain! what kind of philosophy for life was that?

Thanks to their mother, William and Harry had grown up to be two expressive straight-talkers and ambitious world-changers too. Their straight-talking along with their attempts at changing make up the substance of this book. And we jump into our story in May 2019 with the birth of Prince Harrys first child and the chance that this happy event offered the two battling brothers to reconcile to embrace and to make up. Would they take it?

There had been tiffs and troubles before, of course, in the run-up to the wedding you know, that little wedding at Windsor Castle between the Anglo-Saxon prince and the American, mixed-race, divorcee TV star in the spring of 2018 that attracted some 1.9 billion viewers around the world. What family wedding would be complete without a few family hiccups: a disputed bridesmaids outfit here, a missing tiara there and oh yes, an absentee father of the bride?