Princess Anne plays peacemaker between feuding brothers Prince Harry and Prince William
“Anne has a soft spot for Harry because they share a similar sense of humour – or certainly did – and she can identify with him being the spare, not the heir,” royal expert Phil Dampier tells Woman’s Day.
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“After all, Anne has played second fiddle for 70 years to Charles and Prince Andrew, even though she has been the hardest-working royal.”
With Harry due to return to the High Court in London as part of his ongoing case with the Mirror Group over phone-hacking allegations, it’s the perfect opportunity for Anne, 72, to have a quiet word with her nephew and tell him exactly what she thinks of all the “feuding nonsense”.
“If King Charles asks her, I’m sure she would act as a go-between in any meaningful family attempts to heal the rift,” says Phil.
“Anne also knows better than most that royals are humans with weaknesses and problems like the rest of us. Her own marriage failed, she had an affair with one of her detectives and her son Peter Phillips’ marriage ended in divorce, so she doesn’t tend to lecture or moralise at others.”
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Tellingly, Anne is one of the only members of the royal family who wasn’t attacked in Harry’s blistering biography, which cruelly targeted his brother William and sister-in-law Kate, as well as sharing details of his father’s relationship with his stepmother Queen Camilla. The biggest roadblock will be William.
“William is the one who is most upset and can’t move beyond Harry’s cruel portrayal of him as hot-headed and unsympathetic” says a royal insider.
Adds Phil, “Anne won’t be happy about Harry writing Spare and doing his Netflix series, and doesn’t believe in washing dirty linen in public, but she will have forgiven him and tried to understand his motives.”
