Prince William recently made an uncommon public remark about his brother, Prince Harry, after years of strained relations between them.
In a newly released promo for the upcoming documentary Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, shared on YouTube on Saturday, October 26, the future king of England reminisced about a memory from their childhood together.
William, 42, recalled a time when their late mother, Princess Diana, took both him and Harry to The Passage – a UK-based charity that assists individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness. This outing became a pivotal experience for him as a child.
“My mother took me to The Passage; she took Harry and I both there. I must have been 11 at the time, maybe 10,” William said. “I had never been to anything like that before, and I was a bit anxious about what to expect.”
William went on to explain that the experience opened his eyes to the privileges he’d grown up with, and made him realize that not everyone lived the same way he did.
“My mother went about her usual, making everyone feel relaxed, having a laugh and joking with everyone. I remember at the time kind of thinking, ‘Well, if everyone doesn’t have a home, they’re all going to be really sad.’ But it was incredible how happy an environment it was,” William said. “I remember having some good conversations, playing chess, chatting and that’s when it dawned on me that there were other people out there who don’t have the same life as you do.”
He continued: “You know, when you’re quite small, you just think life is what you see in front of you and you don’t really have concept to look elsewhere. It’s when you meet people, as I did then, who put a different perspective in your head and say, ‘Well, I was living on the street last night,’ and you’re like, ‘Woah.’ I remember that happening.”
Prince William Princess Diana Prince Harry Prince William, Princess Diana, and Prince Harry. It’s believed these remarks are the first time William has spoken publicly about Harry since tensions escalated following Harry and Meghan Markle’s departure from the Royal Family in January 2020.
Harry, 40, has previously addressed the complexities in his relationship with William, including in a 2021 CBS interview.
“I love William to bits. We’ve been through hell together and we have a shared experience, but we are on different paths,” he said. “The relationship is space at the moment and time heals all things, hopefully.”
In his 2023 memoir, Spare, Harry later referred to William as his “archnemesis.”
“There has always been this competition between us, weirdly,” Harry said during an interview with Good Morning America in January 2023 while promoting his book. “I think it really plays into or always played by the ‘heir/spare.’”