Prince William and Prince Harry will not see each other in person until the day of their grandfather’s funeral, while Kate Middleton is expected to act as peacemaker.
The brothers are believed to have already spoken on the phone since Harry landed in the UK on Sunday ahead of reuniting after more than a year apart at the service for Prince Philip this weekend.
It will be the first time the dukes meet face-to-face since Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which they said William was ‘trapped’ in the monarchy.
They also revealed an unnamed relative – not the Queen or Philip – had ‘raised concerns and conversations’ about their unborn child’s skin tone, to which William later insisted the royals are ‘very much not a racist family’.
It is hoped the pair will be able to meet up ahead of the 3pm ceremony at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on Saturday, where it is expected they will walk side by side behind their beloved grandfather’s coffin.
Sources close to the brothers said Harry and William will put on a ‘unified’ front for the sake of the Queen as they pay their respects to the Duke of Edinburgh, who died on Friday aged 99.
One insider told The Telegraph: ‘They know it is not about them on Saturday – it is about honouring their grandfather’s memory and supporting their grandmother.
‘I would be extremely surprised if that wasn’t front and centre of both their minds. They will be keen to spend time together as a family, in the same time zone for once.’
‘The entire focus is on the Queen. No exceptions. A family unified,’ another well-placed source told the paper.
Heavily pregnant Meghan will not attend the funeral following doctors’ advice, meaning Harry will be alone in confronting his family since the couple’s two-hour tell-all interview.
It is thought the Duchess of Cambridge will be ‘hoping to sooth the tensions’ between the brothers and has been credited with ‘taming’ William’s sometimes fiery emotions.
One source told The Telegraph Kate had been hopeful of a reconciliation with the couple ahead of the Oprah interview and is ‘incredibly sad’ that Harry and William’s relationship is on such bad terms.
Harry previously described Kate as ‘the big sister I never had’ when his older brother proposed to her in 2010 – but the in-laws’ relationship has become fractured since the Sussexes’ decision to step back as senior working royals and the Oprah interview.
Among the damning revelations made against the royals, Meghan said Kate had made her cry in the run up to her wedding – despite headlines at the time suggesting the opposite. She said her sister-in-law had apologised with a bunch of flowers.
She also told how she was refused help by the ‘firm’ when she was suicidal, while Harry said he was ‘cut off’ financially when they moved to California and father Charles stopped taking his calls.
It is understood that the Duke of Sussex has already spoken to some other family members including Prince Charles, Beatrice and Eugenie, ahead of the service.
Prince Charles is expected to walk alongside his sons and other senior royals on foot immediately behind a specially-modified Land Rover carrying the coffin, before Prince Philip is laid to rest at Windsor Castle.
Although there is a lot of ‘bad blood’ it is hoped that the funeral and the family’s reunion will ‘mark the beginning of a reconciliation’, a royal source told the Mail on Sunday.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.