Family grief could once again bring Prince William and Prince Harry face to face as they mourn the death of their uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes, who died at the age of 82 on July 29, a new episode of Newsweek's The Royal Report podcast has heard.
Fellowes married Princess Diana's older sister, Lady Jane Spencer, in 1978 and between 1990 and 1999 he served as private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II. According to biographers, William and Harry regularly spent time with the Fellowes family during their childhood.
As private secretary to the queen, Fellowes was given the use of Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace as a London home for his family, which stood just yards from the front door of Princess Diana's apartments.
After the princess' untimely death at the age of 36 following a Paris car crash in 1997, William and Harry reportedly regularly stayed with their aunt, uncle and cousins at their country home in Norfolk, England.
Now, as the relationship between William and Harry has publicly broken down in recent years, Newsweek's chief royal correspondent, Jack Royston, told Royal Report listeners that they could be reunited to honor their uncle's memory and support their grieving aunt and cousins.
"I don't want to drag this story about a person losing their life into another account of the royal rift, but it is inevitably a question that will likely come up in the media," he said.
"The kind of received wisdom is that William and Harry will not be in the same place at the same time. You know, for example, at the Diana award, Harry, wasn't even in the room he just recorded a message, but they made sure that it wasn't played until after William had left.
"So, there really is a strong desire to keep the two brothers fundamentally separate... There was a recent society wedding where William went and that meant Harry couldn't. So, it's a really difficult situation, I think, to try to work out."
Harry and William last attended an event together in 2023 for the coronation of their father, King Charles III, though the brothers didn't publicly interact. Prior to this, they were also together at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
"Presumably you invite both William and Harry and just let them decide between themselves who comes and how it's handled," Royston said of the arrangements for Fellowes. "But it is entirely possible that the two brothers will be brought back together again by this funeral."
"I don't think this time round that anybody will have any real high expectations that it will kind of create an opportunity for them to heal their rift. I mean them meeting and seeing each other and actually talking to one another face to face at Prince Philip's funeral, that didn't heal the rift," he said. "So, it's difficult to see how anything will move on now, but you know never say never, it is always possible. Never rule anything out."
Newsweek approached Kensington Palace and representatives of Prince Harry via email for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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