Lip reader reveals stinging comment Harry whispered to Meghan during their final public appearance
Writing in his book Battle of the Brothers, royal expert Robert Lacey revealed that Prince William had attempted to extend ‘a small but sensitive gesture of peace’ to Prince Harry at his last public outing, despite the otherwise icy exchange.
According to the author, Harry was told he and Meghan would not be allowed to take part in ‘The Procession of The Queen’ at the Commonwealth Day Service – as they had done the year prior.
Instead, only Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Duchess Camilla, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge were set to take part – a snub which was printed in the Order of Service for all 2,000 members of the congregation to see.
‘Harry and Meghan were not included in this senior royal group,’ Mr Lacey wrote.
‘As “junior” royals they would have to shuffle their way to their seats that afternoon like any other member of the congregation and take their places on the sidelines alongside their fellow “juniors”, Edward and Sophie Wessex.’
The prince was reportedly ‘furious’ at being ‘shunted aside on this final appearance’.
Fearing another highly public royal skirmish, William and Catherine stepped in to defuse the situation and offered to join ‘emotional’ Harry and Meghan as they waited in their seats for the Queen, Charles and Camilla to arrive.
‘It was a small but sensitive gesture of peace,’ Mr Lacey wrote.
‘Within minutes of each other, the two princes and their wives slipped quietly into their seats, and both couples then sat waiting with everyone else for the Queen and Prince Charles to process in senior splendour down the aisle to open the ceremony’.
But it seems this eleventh-hour olive branch was still not enough to ease the ill-feeling between the feuding family – in what body language expert Judi James described as ‘not exactly the warm reunion we were hoping for’.