The Prince of Wales appears to have taken a “leaf out of Prince Harry’s book” after announcing his plans to modernise the Royal Family “at pace” despite the ongoing feud between him and his brother, a royal expert has claimed.

Earlier this month Prince William visited South Africa for his Earthot Prize awards and made a candid admission near the end of his trip, saying: “I can only describe what I’m trying to do, and that’s I’m trying to do it differently and I’m trying to do it for my generation. And to give you more an understanding around it, I’m doing it with maybe a smaller R in the royal, if you like, that’s maybe a better way of saying it.”

Meanwhile, the Duke of Sussex opened up about how challenging life within the Firm can be in his memoir, Spare.

Vanity Fair royal editor Katie Nicholl told the Sun: “One person who’s probably sitting there thinking ‘this is what I’ve been saying all along’ is the Duke of Sussex. Let’s be more open, let’s show more empathy, let’s do things a little bit differently. One of the reasons Harry felt he needed to leave was because he didn’t feel he could bend the institution the way he wanted to do things. I think we have seen the royals take a leaf out of his book.”

She added: “It’s one thing opening up; it’s one thing seeing the King give a big hug to someone rather than just shake their hand. I think it’s modernising at some pace, but I think it’s only now had the opportunity to do that because the late Queen’s reign was so lengthy it didn’t have the opportunity to modernise the way it is now. It can’t jump too quickly ahead of the curve, it has to keep up. It had to change. That’s the point.”

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