Diana would be "heartbroken" over Harry's relationship with William these days

The brothers are not speaking right now

Princes William and Harry with their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales (1961 - 1997) in the garden of Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, 18th July 1986. William is wearing a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt.
(Image credit: Photo by Tim Graham / Getty)

Prince Harry and Prince William's relationship is very possibly the worst it's ever been right now.

In his new memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex doesn't ~spare~ us any details about his older brother, the heir to his spare. He describes how they were consistently in competition throughout their lives, and how Harry knew that he was there as a stand-in of sorts in case anything happened to William.

Harry also writes at length about his mother, Diana. During his interview with Good Morning America, host Michael Strahan asked the prince how he thinks his mum would feel about the state of the brothers' relationship right now.

"I think she would be sad, I think she would be looking at it long term to know that there are certain things we need to go through to be able to heal the relationship," the Archewell cofounder said (via Hello!).

"I think she would be heartbroken that it's ended up where it's ended up, I think she'd be heartbroken about the fact that William, his office, were part of these stories. Me and William made a pact that we would never let our offices fight against each other.

"The people he employed broke that pact."

Here, Harry is referring to a practice he claims is widespread among the royal houses: the planting of stories from royal press offices to the tabloid press, who then quote the person who leaked the story as an anonymous "Palace source." Harry claims that these stories are often lies designed to protect different royals, sometimes at the expense of other royals.

In Harry & Meghan on Netflix, the duke explained that he and William had promised each other as young boys that their press offices wouldn't turn against each other, but he claimed that William's team ended up briefing against Harry and Meghan.

Neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace has responded to these claims, so it's important to remember this is only one side of the story, and we may never hear the other.

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.