Four Times Prince Harry and William Sibling Rivalry Flared

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appeared at a star-studded charity function alongside Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres for a cause that William has campaigned on behalf of, after years of sibling rivalry.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex turned up for local Santa Barbara charity One 805, which provides mental-health support to emergency first responders. It was held at a festival on the grounds of Kevin Costner's estate on Friday, September 22.

Prince William has been working in the area of mental health for years, having himself struggled emotionally as an air-ambulance pilot. Only last week, the royal paid a visit to The Ten House fire station, in New York, to talk about the pressures on first responders.

To many, it may seem completely innocuous for two brothers to have similar interests, particularly in a context where William and Harry are supporting good causes.

However, Harry's book, Spare, revealed a fierce sibling rivalry over particular areas. The brothers "almost came to blows" during an argument over who would work on conservation in Africa.

Here are four examples of moments when the rivalry flared.

When Prince William Said 'Africa Was His Thing'

Harry wrote that, by 2015, the professional rivalry between the brothers was already fierce as he attempted to craft his royal future after leaving the British Army.

"One small problem: Willy. Africa was his thing, he said. And he had the right to say this, or felt he did, because he was the Heir. It was ever in his power to veto my thing, and he had every intention of exercising, even flexing, that veto power.

"We'd had some real rows about it," Harry wrote, citing the example of a childhood friend who asked: "Why can't you both work on Africa?"

"Willy had a fit," the book read, and the elder prince "flew" at their friend "for daring to make such a suggestion. 'Because rhinos, elephants, that's mine!'"

Harry wrote: "It was all so obvious. He cared less about finding his purpose or passion than about winning his lifelong competition with me."

Harry added that William "felt slighted that he hadn't been the one invited" on a trek to the North Pole with veterans' charity Walking With the Wounded.

According to Spare, William said: "I let you have veterans, why can't you let me have African elephants and rhinos?"

A Poisoned Atmosphere at Kensington Palace

Harry's book acknowledges the existence of two rival camps in the private office at Kensington Palace in London during a key era in which royal relations disintegrated.

Harry and Meghan's relationship with William and Kate was already strained by June 2018, leading to problems that summer.

"Our staff sensed the friction," the prince wrote, "read the press, and thus there was frequent bickering around the office. Sides were taken. Team Cambridge versus Team Sussex.

"Rivalry, jealousy, competing agendas—it all poisoned the atmosphere," Harry added.

"Nerves were shattering, people were sniping," he wrote. "In such a climate there was no such thing as constructive criticism.

"All feedback was seen as an affront, an insult. More than once a staff member slumped across their desk and wept.

"For all this, every bit of it, Willy blamed one person. Meg. He told me so
several times, and he got cross when I told him he was out of line," Harry added.

He, by contrast, blamed staff members that William had brought in from government.

Harry and Meghan's Australia Tour

By November and December that year, stories began appearing in the U.K. press, painting Meghan as "Duchess Difficult" for saying she had made Kate Middleton cry. Meghan would later tell Oprah that she, rather than the Princess of Wales, was the one who wept.

And, during the same 2021 interview, the Sussexes said the leaks were a product of royal jealousy, citing a tour the couple went on in October 2018 to Australia, which had led to a wave of positive press.

Before the CBS tell-all with Oprah hit screens, however, sources appeared to offer an alternative explanation when they told The Times that Meghan had privately been accused of bullying two personal assistants out of the household.

The U.K. broadsheet newspaper was handed an email sent by former Kensington Palace press secretary Jason Knauf in October 2018, shortly after the end of the tour, in which he wrote that Meghan always had someone in her sights.

The Earthshot Prize

In 2023, the sibling rivalry appears to have made a discreet comeback, with William seemingly poaching Jacinda Ardern to work on his Earthshot Prize.

The former New Zealand prime minister collaborated with Meghan on her Vogue magazine cover, Forces for Change, and was also featured in the Sussexes' lesser-known Netflix project Live to Lead.

However, Ardern has since become a trustee of Earthshot, which gives awards for innovative solutions to climate change.

If one star signing could be a coincidence, then a second name from Harry and Meghan's rolodex appeared at William's New York summit on September 19, celebrity chef José Andrés.

The founder of World Central Kitchen has described Harry and Meghan as friends. His not-for-profit non-governmental organization was the biggest recipient of funds from the Sussexes' Archewell Foundation in 2021, but Andrés chaired a panel discussion promoting winners of William's prize.

That same day, William appeared at The Ten House fire station, which lost several firefighters during 9/11, to highlight the impact of mental health on first responders.

And days later, Harry has now appeared discussing the same issue, attracting a wave of news reporting.

It is, of course, possible that there is a degree of unintended coincidence involved. However, it cannot have been lost on Harry that first-responder mental health is one of his brother's big causes, just like Africa was in 2015.

Harry's book certainly paints a picture of William as someone who feels territorial about such overlaps.

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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