Prince Harry was hurt when his brother Prince William didn’t respond to him in the hours leading up to Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022. The Prince of Wales, 41, reportedly left his brother, 39, on read while on his way to see the late monarch before her passing, author and Royals reporter Omid Scobie wrote in his book Endgame, per Page Six. The author claimed that the Duke of Sussex was heartbroken while trying to arrange travel to see Elizabeth before her death at 96.
A source close to Harry told the author that he was trying to get in touch with William and rushing to make travel arrangements to see the Queen, but his texts weren’t answered. “Wiliam ignored him,” a family insider said. “He clearly didn’t want to see his brother.”
While Prince William was on his way to see the monarch, Harry chartered his own plane, but he didn’t know that she had passed before he took off. Harry had previously revealed that he wasn’t invited on a plane to see Elizabeth before she died.
Harry was also hurt that Buckingham Palace announced her passing while he was in the air. “Harry was crushed. His relationship with the Queen was everything to him. She would have wanted him to know before it went out to the world,” a source close to the Duke of Sussex said in the book. “They could have waited just a little longer, it would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but no one respected that at all.”
The book details the growing rift between the princes, and Omid revealed that he believed that there was “no going back” between the two of them in an interview with People. “These were two men who once upon a time were firmly aligned in their outlook. One of them had to move on to also protect the crown,” he said in the interview. “There’s a real chance here to learn and adapt to modern society and also make up for mistakes of the past.”