Prince Philip funeral: Queen arrives for service

When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.

And they seemed to be stepping towards reconciliation, chatting good naturedly after the service. As they took off their masks, William said “Yes it was great, wasn’t it”, to which Harry replied “It was as he wanted”, lipreaders said. The estranged brothers were seen together for the first time in more than a year as they walked behind the Duke of Edinburgh’s coffin before the funeral service at Windsor Castle.

And they were later caught side-by-side on camera in a private moment that could mark the beginning of the end of the feud that has torn them apart since Harry stepped away from the family to pursue a new life in America.

William, 38, and Harry, 36, had not walked shoulder-to-shoulder during the sombre, eight-minute procession from the castle’s quadrangle to St George’s Chapel, and instead were either side of their cousin Peter Phillips. Nor did they appear to exchange a single word or glance during the ceremony.

But, in what could be a pivotal moment on their road to rapprochement, they were later caught briefly on camera walking together after William’s wife Kate slipped ahead of them following the chapel service. They spoke to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and William later said to his brother, “Absolutely beautiful service, ah, the music”, interpreters said.

ITN’s Tom Bradby said: “It’s often said funerals are a time for reconciliation and that’s a scene a lot of people wanted to see, not least the family itself.”

Commentator Eve Pollard said: “They were talking. They were possibly overcome by emotion. They were talking – and that’s got to be a very good sign. Let’s hope that they sort their recent troubles out because the Queen needs them both.”

It had been quietly hoped that the loss of their grandfather, who both William and Harry loved deeply, might begin a healing process and royal author Sally Bedell Smith reminded millions of American viewers of the unbreakable bond they share. She said in a US TV interview: “William was 15 and Harry 12 when they walked behind their mother Princess Diana’s casket, and their grandfather’s funeral will have evoked deep memories of that.

“Right up to the night before Diana’s funeral, it was still undecided whether William and Harry should walk in the procession.

“It was Philip who said to them, ‘If you don’t walk, you’ll regret it for the rest of your lives’. And then he told them, ‘If you walk, I’ll walk with you’.”

Now, 23 years on and united once again in grief, William and Harry appeared last night to have taken the first, tentative steps towards peace.

Their chapel encounter follows claims from a royal aide that “wounds are still very raw”.

The source was quoted as saying: “There is a realisation that everyone does need to reach some form of resolution, if only for the Queen, who has said it is her wish that the family comes together.”

Comment by Margaret Holder

IT took the Queen’s saddest day to reconcile feuding brothers William and Harry.

During the funeral procession the brothers did not appear to look at each other. Separated by their older cousin, Peter Phillips, they stared ahead, marching to a steady military drumbeat.

As Prince Philip’s coffin paused on the steps of St George’s Chapel, Harry might have recalled his bride Meghan’s veil fluttering over these same steps at their wedding three years ago.

How things have changed since then.

Perhaps it was the sight of grieving relatives that reminded him of how creating his new world meant losing the old one.

There was space between Harry and William before and during the service but as the family filed out, William’s ever-reliable wife Kate, broke the ice with a few words before the two brothers spoke publicly to each other for the first time in over a year.

It will be a short-lived reunion. Harry will reconnect with Hollywood’s synthetic values in a world peopled with those who would not give him a glance if he were plain Harry Wales.

The damage done by the couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey is not easily cast aside. For a truly renewed bond between Harry and William, the prodigal prince needs to abandon his accusatory stance for an apologetic one.

William will have to find a way of forgiving. The Sussexes’ attack on Kate in the Oprah interview is a particularly difficult point for the Prince.

Harry has had a chance to build bridges in this short and sad visit but he must at least give an undertaking that there will be no more barbed attacks on the family.

The tragic loss of his mother remains determining factor in his life. In the foreword of a book, Hospital By The Hill, dedicated to children who lost parents through Covid, Harry wrote: “When I was a young boy I lost my mum. At the time I didn’t want to believe it or accept it, and it left a huge hole inside of me.”

Only he and William share that loss along with their childhood memories of Diana. Only they can try to heal their breach before the unveiling of her statue on July 1.

Source: Read Full Article