Feuding princes' children could help brothers 'bond back together'

A bond between cousins could be what reunites Prince Harry and Prince William, according to a royal author.

Though they have hardly spent any time together over the last two years, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis do have cousins in Archie and Lilibet, the children of Harry and Meghan.

The Cambridges took Archie to Canada when he was just six months old, on their 'extended break', and he has not been back to the UK since. Lilibet, at a month old, has not met her British cousins.

Despite the children living thousands of miles apart, a royal author has suggested the link between the two could be crucial to a reconciliation for William and Harry, whose rift has now continued for some 18 months.

Speaking at a Telegraph event about the legacy of Princess Diana, journalist Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles said: "There are going to be these very cool American cousins, which I think is a great sub-plot for the whole house of Windsor.

"George, Charlotte and Louis are probably going to be rather envious of the fun... you won't be able to keep them out of Montecito.

"It's probably going to be those children, those cousins that in the end bond them back together.

"There's nothing like having those young relationships. Harry for instance is very close to Eugenie and Bea, and whatever has happened in that horrendous strata of Andrew, the cousins are very very close, which speaks well for the future of this family.

"I think in the end they will develop an equilibrium between them.

"I think the key moment will be when the Queen dies because... at that point, a great solemnity will fall upon the younger generation, there will be the most enormous identity crisis for the country and the family will pull together.

"They will want to support their father, and William will find he has the whole Duchy of Cornwall to run and he is quickly in the running for succession. It will concentrate the minds of the children in that family."

Watch: Prince William and Prince Harry unveil Princess Diana Statue at Kensington Palace

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Harry, 36, and William, 39, reunited briefly on 1 July in Kensington, as they unveiled the statue of their mother Diana on what would have been her 60th birthday.

They were pictured looking at ease with one another, with Harry relaxed and joking with the family members who were invited to the small ceremony.

But it was reported that Harry left just 20 minutes after the ceremony had finished, suggesting there was little time for reconciliatory chats with brother William.

Speaking after the unveiling, Brown, who interviewed Diana in the months before her death in 1997, noted that the brothers are different in personality, with Harry modelling himself on his mother, "who was about feeling, about following her heart, breaking free.

However, she warned: "But he may not have absorbed some of her other lessons."

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As to what the late princess would have said about Harry and Meghan stepping back, she added: "I think Diana would have been supportive of his desire to get out of there, which she wanted to do, partly as a second son, but I think she would have given him a lot of advice.

"Don't forget she saw how Fergie did her divorce and thought to herself 'I'm not doing that, I'm not being stiffed by the Royal Family', and she got herself £17m which was more anyone had ever got from the Royal Family, and which Charles still complains about to this day."

She said Harry dropped out of it "chaotically".

She added that Diana would have been "enormously sorry" to see the rift between Harry and William and "would have spent a lot of time trying to reconcile the sons for every reason".

The reunion event included a joint statement from William and Harry, a rarity in recent years, after they split their royal households back in 2019.

They said: "Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy."

Watch: Prince William attends NHS service as Duchess self-isolates