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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Scarlett O'Toole

Prince Harry says distance between brother 'wouldn't be the same' if Diana was alive

Prince Harry has claimed his fraught relationship with brother Prince William "wouldn't be the same" if their mother Princess Diana was still alive.

The Duke of Sussex always publicly appeared close to his older sibling as they were seemingly bonded by the tragic death of their mum when Harry was just 12-years-old and William was 15.

However, Harry has detailed how in private their relationship was strained.

In his debut memoir Spare, Harry described William as his "beloved brother and arch nemesis" and alleges verbal and physical disputes between the two.

The royal has further addressed how the loss of Diana impacted his relationship with William during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Harry and William have grown apart in recent years (Getty Images)
He said it would be different if Diana was alive (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

The host asked Harry: "If your mother were still alive, do you ever think about how she might handle this moment?"

He replied: "We wouldn't have got to this moment. We wouldn't have done.

"It's impossible to say where we would be now, where those relationships would be now, but there is no way that the distance between my brother and I would be the same."

He appeared on the show to discuss his new book (CBS via Getty Images)

Harry then noted he has felt a deeper connection to Princess Diana since stepping back from his royal duties.

"I’ve really felt the presence of my mum, especially in the last couple of years," he said.

"I detail in the book my brother and I talking at her grave and how he felt as though she had been with him for a long period of time and helped set him up with life and that he felt she was now moving over to me.

"And I have felt her more in the last two years than I have in the last 30."

William and Harry were just children when their mum died (Getty Images)
Harry said he's felt his mum's presence in recent years (Getty Images)

The late Princess of Wales died at just 36 years old back in 1997 after sustaining injuries in a car crash in Paris.

Harry reflected on the fact he is now two years older than his mum when she died.

"Well, she died at 36, and I was 36 when this all kicked off.

"January of 2020 was when my wife and I basically said, 'Enough, we can’t cope. We can’t deal with this. We need to carve out something different.' So that was an interesting overlap of time."

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