Resurfaced Video Shows Charles and William Ganging Up on Harry — Years Before Royal Feud

Long before the memoir and the royal fallout, a ski slope moment from 1998 offers an uncomfortable glimpse into the making of a family rift.

A resurfaced piece of footage, captured just months after the death of Princess Diana, is showing an uncomfortable scene that is a window into the dynamics of a family that would, decades later, fracture very publicly indeed. 

The clip, now doing the rounds again after appearing on Channel 5's Lip-Reading the Royals: What Are They Really Saying?, shows a young Prince Harry, his father, King Charles, and his brother, Prince William, in conversation during a skiing trip. According to forensic reader Nicola Hickling, what passed between them hardly looked like family banter, but a Harry being ganged up on, with the Prince cold and underprepared, very much the odd one out. 

Hickling claims that Harry turned to his father and said, “I am so cold." Given that they were up skiing, it was a reasonable thing to say. He was a teenager, recently bereaved, standing in the snow.

What he reportedly received in return was not so comfortable. Rather than addressing his younger son, Charles allegedly turned to William and said, "He has no sense. Of course it's bloody cold. We're in the snow."  William, apparently unmoved, followed up with: "Didn't he bring a spare hat?" Charles, according to Hickling, responded: "He wanted to wear that cap. I told him he was mad and that it was very cold. He doesn't make it easy for himself." William's alleged contribution was, if anything, cooler than the weather: "Let him crack on. He will learn. He will probably get frostbite."

It probably does not appear as serious if considered in isolation, but viewed through the lens of everything that came after, it was probably building up for some time. Harry's 2023 memoir Spare laid bare his sense of having been sidelined, dismissed, and left to fend for himself within the royal family, with William cast as a rival rather than an ally and Charles as a father more comfortable with distance. 

Harry's departure from royal life in 2020 triggered a rupture that has shown no meaningful signs of healing. His relationship with William, in particular, remains firmly estranged. The relationship with Charles is more nuanced — and now being tested by a new, very public question. Reports suggest that Harry has asked the King to co-host the 2027 Invictus Games, but the answer is elusive.