Amidst Prince Harry Drama, King Charles and Prince William are Closer than Ever, Royal Expert Says

Prince William and King Charles together — (Image credit: Getty)

While the rift between Prince William and Prince Harry is something that no one wanted, it does seem to have produced one benefit: King Charles and William have never been closer. Us Weekly reports that the King and the future king have a “stronger bond” because of the familial drama the past few years, as “they’ve had to put up this united front against Harry and Meghan,” royal expert Christopher Andersen told the outlet. “They’ve been insulted by members of their own family. It’s been quite the ordeal for them, and I think that they kind of circled the wagon, so to speak. And they’ve come out of that with a stronger bond.”

Andersen remarked that William and wife Kate have been “naturals” at living the royal lifestyle “from the very beginning,” and that their eldest, Prince George—like William, an heir to the throne—is “surprisingly comfortable.”

Since their step back as working members of the royal family in January 2020, Harry and wife Meghan Markle have built a life for themselves in Montecito, California, and have undertaken projects like Harry’s memoir, Spare, and the couple’s six-part Netflix docuseries, Harry Meghan—both of which took aim at the royal family.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle laughing at one another at the Invictus Games

“Trying to carve out this new life for them in Hollywood, I suppose they expected the honeymoon to go on,” Andersen said of Harry and Meghan. “And as time passed, more and more of their allies and friends and admirers have just fallen away because they see this as kind of a narcissistic romp through Montecito. They’re not getting the kind of support now that they had when they arrived.”

As to the persistent rumors of divorce that are currently plaguing the Sussexes, Andersen doesn’t “see any evidence” that the two are headed for a breakup. Their marriage is “not just a Hollywood marriage,” he said. “It’s a Hollywood marriage with the whole tensions of royalty thrown in. Frankly, people on that level, it’s very hard to imagine how they keep their sanity because [there’s] no privacy, none whatsoever. And people are constantly harping about them. The best thing they can do is ignore everything.”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.