People Magazine’s cover story this week is all about the late Princess Diana and her sons, and how she would be so disappointed with Prince William and Prince Harry’s estrangement. For years, I’ve found this selective “Ghost Diana would be disappointed in this and this” reporting to be really odd, not to mention macabre. If anyone is really going to spin it out – “what would Diana think about this situation if she were alive today” – then really go whole hog, you know? Talk about how Diana would feel about her ex-husband marrying Camilla, or what Diana would think of the grifter Middletons, or what Diana would think of how Charles has treated their sons and grandchildren.
It does feel like the point of this week’s Ghost Diana stories is to somehow blame Harry for the estrangement, and to act like Harry is the one disappointing his dead mother by refusing to abandon his wife and children to suit his brother. Andrew Morton (Diana’s biographer) told People: “We all remember the days when Harry and William were joshing with one another, and it all seemed set for their relationship and the future — that Harry, as Diana always used to say, would be William’s wingman. It’s a great loss for the monarchy.” Morton also said this (People Mag ran another story):
Princess Diana was adamant that her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, should be there for one another, which makes their estrangement so painful today.
“Diana always used to say she had two boys for a reason — the younger would be there to support the older in the lonely task as future king,” Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton tells PEOPLE in this week’s exclusive cover story.
“There is no doubt Diana would have tried to act as a peacemaker between them,” says Morton, whose latest book, Winston and the Windsors, is out in October. “If she had been around, they would have worked things out in a different way.”
Here’s the thing with that: Harry still would have been willing to be his awful brother’s “wingman/support” in general. The problem was that William wanted more than Harry’s wingman support – William wanted Harry to be divorced and broken. You think Diana would have had something to say about THAT? Meanwhile, Parade had another royal exclusive this week, about the possibility that William and Harry could reconnect:
A source is exclusively revealing to Parade why Prince Harry and Prince William might reconnect sooner rather than later amid their years-long feud.
“King Charles really isn’t doing well,” the insider says of King Charles III, who was diagnosed with cancer last year, adding that his health has been “deteriorating more.”
The source adds: “It wouldn’t be surprising if William and Harry reconnected a bit more over this. This could be the thing that pushes it to happen.”
Parade reached out to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Odd. The part about Charles not doing well – he’s been super-active in Scotland in the past month, all while his wife is sunning herself on a super-yacht in the Mediterranean. Charles is also doing the VJ Day events today while William and Kate are on vacation, presumably in Norfolk. Now, would William call Harry and say “I don’t think Pa is doing well?” I doubt it.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of People.
