Amid doctors' concerns for Queen Elizabeth II's health in September 2022, a rush to the Balmoral estate in Scotland ensured for the Royal Family to say their goodbyes to the monarch. While William, Prince of Wales, took a flight from London to Aberdeen with his uncles Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, and his aunt Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Harry made his own way there in a private jet.
However, a new book written by Omid Scobie — who has close ties to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex — suggests that William deliberately left his brother out of the travel plans, 'ignoring' his texts. A source explains in Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival that all of Harry's messages went unanswered, with the apparent rationale being that "he clearly didn't want to see his brother", even though there was space on the plane used by the senior royals.
Another insider added: "Harry was crushed. His relationship with the Queen was everything to him. She would have wanted him to know before it went out to the world". "They could have waited just a little longer, it would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but no one respected that at all."
Harry chartered a private jet — which cost a reported £30,000 — to get himself to Scotland but he didn't make it in time, instead finding out the Queen had passed away when Buckingham Palace announced the news while he was in the air.
Scobie says William views Harry as a "defector" and there is "no going back for them".
The claims have incensed a royal insider, who told The Mirror: "It appears no matter what happens behind closed doors, even in a time of such pain and grief, that where the Royal Family are concerned it will one day emerge."
The brothers have fallen out in recent years and their relationship is said to have hit the rocks again this year when Harry published his tell-all memoir Spare, which made a number of allegations about William's behaviour towards him from childhood, following Princess Diana's passing, to the present-day, sparked largely by his marriage to Meghan Markle.
The book included claims of a physical bust-up between the siblings after William is said to have called the former actress "difficult", "rude" and "abrasive" with Harry suggesting the pair scuffled and he ended up falling over and landing on a dog bowl.
Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival hits shelves on November 28.