Photographer Pinpoints Moment Prince Harry Grew ‘Fed Up’ With William — Long Before Meghan
For years, Prince William and Prince Harry looked like the royal dream team, bonded by duty, mischief, grief, and a lifetime in the spotlight. But those who watched them closely insist the cracks appeared well before Meghan Markle came on the scene, even if she is often cast as the villain of the story.
Ian Lloyd, a royal photographer and author who has followed the monarchy closely, says that in hindsight, there were several moments when the relationship between the Princes looked less than harmonious. In the documentary William and Harry: The Unseen Photos, he reflected on images that, at the time, seemed routine but now appear more telling. “Looking back at my photos...I can now see one or two tell-tale signs that things weren’t going that well between the brothers,” Lloyd told The Mirror. “When they posed for photos at RAF Shawbury in 2009, where they were both training to be helicopter pilots, they appeared to be going through the motions.”
The disconnect, he says, became even more visible during William’s wedding. “At William’s wedding to Kate Middleton in April 2011, Harry looked quite fed up when I saw him,” Lloyd remembered. “In his autobiography Spare, Harry says he wasn’t happy wearing his uncomfortable Blues and royal uniform. The other reason he looked glum on the way back may be that he realized their lives were now on separate trajectories.”
For Lloyd, these moments suggest that while Markle may have played a role later in deepening the estrangement, the foundation of the brothers’ relationship was already shaky. “Marriage to Markle has given Harry the family unit he so craved, but has also sounded the death knell for his relationship with his brother, which now seems beyond repair,” he explained.
However, not everyone thinks those early signs were telling of any future estrangement. Arthur Edwards, who has photographed the royal family since the late 1970s, insists the real rupture came after Markle entered the royal fold. “The split with these brothers was the worst part because they were so close,” he said on Kinsey Schofield’s Unfiltered podcast. “I photographed them both since they were [babies] coming out in their mother’s arms, and I’ve seen them grow up together. I’ve seen them learn to ski together, learn to waterski together, and learn to fly together when they both joined the Royal Air Force. They were inseparable. They would always joke about each other… They were fun.”
However, for Edwards, when Markle joined the family, the cracks started showing. “And then Meghan came along, and suddenly, everything changed,” he said. “Everything changed, I think, for the worse for the family, because although in the first year of Markle, it was great. She really embraced the job… She really did warm to the public, and the public loved her — suddenly, after about 18 months, everything changed.”
Speaking on The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show, she once said, “He’s probably just still feeding the chickens [in Montecito]. I don’t know what he does every day. He probably takes the kids to the park and stuff like that… he doesn’t seem to be having a real role now.”