From the “fab four” to allegations of physical assault and racism, the wedge driven between princes Harry and William has developed into a yawning chasm. Yet their father King Charles’s shock cancer diagnosis is prompting hopeful speculation that the rift may heal as Harry flies into the UK to be by his father’s side.

Growing up under the media spotlight they appeared, to the outside world, inseparable. But rumours that the brothers had not been getting on were circulating since 2018. Last January, the extent of the feud was made public through bombshell allegations contained in Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare – chiefly that Prince William had physically assaulted him after calling the Duchess of Sussex “difficult” and “abrasive”.

Tensions heightened further at the end of 2023, when early copies of a Dutch version of Omid Scobie’s book Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival named the Princess of Wales – William’s wife – and King Charles as two senior members of the British royal family alleged to have discussed the skin colour of Harry and Meghan’s unborn son.

Joe Little, the editor of Majesty magazine, said over the past year there had been “very little if any interaction between William and Harry”, bar attending the king’s coronation, with “nothing to suggest there’s been any rapprochement”. Hopes of a rekindling are “just media speculation”, he said.

“We don’t know if there has been any communication since, that’s not something we’ve been made aware of, and it’s certainly not anything the palace would comment on. All of this is deemed to be of a private, intensely personal nature. Certainly Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, for all their transparency, still have aspects of royal life they regard as totally private and this would be one of them,” Little said.

Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator, agreed there was a “very deep rift” with “no signs of thawing” between William and Harry, as well as between Harry and the rest of the royal family, including the king. The Endgame book had “returned relations to the deep freeze”, he said.

But like many other families, they may find that “when it’s a life-threatening illness families pull together whatever their differences”, he suggested. He expected Harry would prioritise some form of reconciliation with his father, but that it would be difficult for royals to overcome feelings that their trust had been broken by Harry.

“The royal family would be concerned that anything said to Harry or indeed Meghan – I think it’s wise he comes solo – might find its way to the press or in a book, and that fear must be allayed before there’s mutual trust,” Fitzwilliams said.

He added this was particularly the case for his brother. “William just doesn’t trust Harry. He believes he’s been betrayed. We’ve also learned that the relations between the brothers weren’t quite what we thought they were, if you read Spare. The press invented things like the ‘fab four’ but it was an illusion.”