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When Prince Harry dramatically parted ways with the royal family in 2020 and moved to California with Meghan Markle, The Firm lost one of its most high-profile employees.
Royal expert and biographer Tina Brown claimed the departure means there is now a ‘Harry-sized hole’ in the family as things continue to rumble on without the Afghanistan veteran and his American wife.
And while Harry’s absence has had a profound effect on the royal family’s professional abilities, it has also had private effects on them.
Ms Brown, who had lunch with Princess Diana just weeks before her death, claims the person who needs Harry most is someone who gets along with him least now: Prince William.
The former editor of Tatler and The New Yorker, 71, claims William surrounded himself with sycophants, but his younger brother was good at keeping him grounded.
Writing on her Substack blog: Fresh hellShe criticized an interview the heir did for his environmental prize, the Earthshot Prize, at the end of his tour of South Africa in November.
She opined: ‘William’s comment that his plans for a caring, shared monarchy include ‘bringing in some empathy’ made him sound like a performative pinhead.
Diana’s longtime confidant Tina Brown has claimed that the person Harry needs most is someone who can least get along with him right now: Prince William
‘In happier years it was the irreverent Harry (or Harold, as William luridly called him) who could tease the Prince of Wales and bring him down.
“There are too many people around William now who, in Kara Swisher’s inimitable phrase about those who live in a gilded bubble, ‘lick him up and down all day long.’
Here, MailOnline looks back at all the times Harry controlled William by putting him in his place.
He shows his sporting prowess by zooming past him in a running race
One of the most photographed moments of Harry controlling William was when he beat him in a race in 2017.
The two brothers went head-to-head in a sprint at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park alongside Princess Kate, in front of dozens of well-wishers from the sidelines.
Harry won the race by a few meters, brazenly turning his head to look at his brother, who grimaced as he struggled to keep pace while Kate finished last.
One of the most photographed moments of Harry controlling William was when he beat him in a race in 2017
Harry won the race by a few meters, brazenly turning his head to look back at his brother who grimaced as he struggled to keep the pace in second place
The trio raced on a London Marathon Training Day for their charity Heads Together at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on February 5, 2017.
The royal trio were on hand to lead the training day for their charity Heads Together, which focuses on mental health.
The public example of Harry’s sporting dominance could have come as a shock to William, who as an older brother was used to winning.
In a 2009 interview with BBC Newsround, he boasted that an arm-wrestling match between them would “obviously” end in his victory, as “it’s not even a competition.”
But as William and Harry grew older, the latter seemed to excel at their shared sporting hobbies, including boxing and polo – playing the elite sport at a professional level since moving to California.
He digs into his baldness in an interview with brotherly ‘banter’
Another memorable occasion when Prince Harry burst the heir apparent bubble was during a joint interview in 2009 while training to become a helicopter pilot.
In the ten-minute chat, they exchanged several jokes about living together, which was seen as good-natured banter.
In Harry’s memoir Spare, he wrote that he and ‘Willy’ – who were then in their mid-twenties – shared a cottage ten minutes away from RAF Shawbury, living together for the first time since attending Eton College.
During the easy-going conversation, Harry complimented William, saying, “I think out of both of us he’s definitely got more brains than me. We established that at school.’ William then jokingly rolled his eyes.
Harry then teased about his brother’s ‘baldness’, but William laughed and replied curtly: ‘Pretty rich, coming from a ginger.’
The brothers exchanged several jokes about living together during a 2009 interview
Although it was considered benign at the time, Harry later wrote that William may have felt frustrated that he would not be able to watch a fight like his.
William also claimed he had to ‘cook and feed him every day’ and said Harry ‘left the dishes in the sink’ and ‘snored’, but the younger brother responded by saying ‘oh, the lies’.
He continued: “The first and last time we will live together, I can assure you,” before William sarcastically interjected, “it was quite an emotional experience.”
But the friendly sibling rivalry revealed in the interview seemed to have obscured a deeper-seated resentment, Harry said in his memoir Spare.
He wrote: ‘Looking back on it now, I wonder if there wasn’t something else going on.
‘I was training to reach the front line, the same place Willy had trained for, but the Palace had ruined his plans.
“The Spare, of course, let him run around the battlefield like a headless chicken, if he likes it. But the heir? No.
“So Willy was now training to be a search and rescue pilot, and perhaps quietly felt frustrated by that.”
Looking back at the best way to manage conservation projects in Africa
The brothers reportedly argued over their different approaches to conservation in Africa.
A source said The times in February that William, despite sharing a passion for the conservation of protected species, supports community-led initiatives to help local people conserve the land, while Harry favors a more interventionist approach.
The single-minded approach Harry favors is better at ensuring habitats are protected quickly, but it will require generous donations.
The method has also fueled tensions with communities cut off from age-old grazing and pastoral routes.
Prince Harry also disagreed with his brother on the best way to preserve sites in Africa
The Duke of Sussex’s hands-on approach relies on donor funding
Prince Harry (pictured with armed rangers) was president of African Parks for six years until he moved to the board last year
The disagreement over wildlife appears to go back a long time, with Harry describing in his autobiography that he ‘almost came to blows’ with William in front of childhood friends.
When asked why the two brothers both worked in Africa, the Prince of Wales is said to have replied: ‘Because rhinos, elephants, they are mine!’.
Harry spent three weeks in Malawi in 2017, working with African Parks to relocate 500 elephants in an incredibly ambitious conservation task.
He subsequently became chairman before joining the board of directors last year.
At the end of the elephant translocation project, Harry appeared to focus on his brother’s approach to conservation, as he said: ‘To enable the coexistence of people and animals, fencing must be increasingly used to protect the two to separate. to keep the peace.
‘Once a fence is up, you are now managing a plot of land. Different rules have to apply whether we like it or not. Under these circumstances, human intervention in stabilizing nature may be required by park managers.’