Inside Princess Kate’s perspective on the Sussex split and the breakdown between William and Harry

Long before the Sussexes formally stepped back from royal life, the Princess of Wales had quietly concluded that the divide within the family might be impossible to repair.

While Prince William was said to be “intensely saddened” by his brother’s decision to quit, Princess Catherine’s perspective was shaped by years of observing the slow unravelling of the relationship between the two men.

As someone who had married into the institution rather than grown up inside it, she had a front-row seat to the tension between “the heir and the spare” and to the inevitability that one day, it might reach breaking point.

Prince William and Prince Harry’s shared childhood, which was bonded by tragedy and lived under extraordinary public scrutiny, had once been their greatest strength. But Princess Catherine had watched as those early loyalties frayed.

She saw Prince Harry and Meghan grow increasingly frustrated by the strictures of a hereditary hierarchy, feeling constrained by rules they no longer wished to follow.

Unlike her husband, Princess Catherine was less inclined to try to persuade Prince Harry to remain, the Mirror revealed.

She believed that the structural imbalance between Prince William, the future king, and Prince Harry, the supporting figure, created tensions that could not easily be smoothed over.

To her, Prince Harry’s desire for a larger, more independent role was understandable — but fundamentally incompatible with the system he was born into.

At the same time, Prince William was becoming more determined that the monarchy must evolve. He believed the royal family could not rely on “tried and trusted methods” alone; they had to be effecting change.

Yet even this forward-looking ambition created friction, including disagreement over charitable focus. When Prince William pursued environmental work in Africa, which has been a long-held passion, Prince Harry reportedly pushed back.

“You don’t just get Africa”, Prince Harry told Prince William in one meeting at St James’s Palace.

Princess Catherine initially approached Meghan with openness.

She described her as “friendly”, albeit erring on the side of somewhat over-friendly, with a ‘touch of California’ about her. Differences in background and style were clear, but not insurmountable.

Princess Catherine was willing to “give Meghan a chance”, and even encouraged Prince William to maintain close ties with his brother as tensions rose.

But the relentless media scrutiny altered the dynamic.

When Prince Harry issued a forceful public response to press coverage, citing “a wave of abuse and harassment … the racial undertones of comment pieces”, it deepened palace unease.

Conversations became strained. Meetings became harder to arrange. Small fractures widened.

Security disputes, working style clashes and growing complaints about staff treatment further hardened positions. A source described the atmosphere bluntly: “The whole atmosphere between them was pretty toxic”.

For Princess Catherine, the turning point appeared to be trust.

Following the Oprah interview, she felt deeply wounded by the disclosure of private exchanges. A source said: “She (Catherine) was very clear that any engagement with Harry or Meghan should be with the utmost of caution because it was obvious that they weren’t to be trusted.”

Where once she had acted as a bridge between brothers, Princess Catherine ultimately concluded that reconciliation was no longer within her power.

The departure, in her view, had become not just likely but inevitable.