Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, is “sad” about his brother leaving the family “team,” according to The Sunday Times (U.K.).
“As the Queen called emergency peace talks tomorrow at Sandringham to end the Windsors’ civil war, The Sunday Times can reveal that Prince William has said he feels sorrow that he and Prince Harry are now ‘separate entities’ and expressed hope that they might pull together again in future,” the U.K. outlet reported Saturday.
“I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives and I can’t do that any more; we’re separate entities,” Prince William told a friend of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, splitting from the royal family.
“I’m sad about that. All we can do, and all I can do, is try and support them and hope that the time comes when we’re all singing from the same page. I want everyone to play on the team,” said William.
As noted by Fox News, earlier reports indicated Prince William and future king Prince Charles, the boys’ father, “were ‘incandescent with rage,’ at Harry.”
William and wife Kate Middleton have been reportedly trying to “appease Harry and Markle in the last few days,” Fox noted.
On Wednesday, Harry and Meghan put out a statement announcing a planned split from their royal duties, a declaration The Associated Press called “stunning.”
“Harry and Meghan say they plan to step back as senior members of the British Royal family, and ‘carve out a progressive new role within this institution’ while working ‘to become financially independent,’” NBC News reported Wednesday.
“After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution,” the couple said in a statement.
“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support her majesty the queen,” the statement added.
According to reports later on Wednesday, the palace responded to the apparently shocking news. According to the BBC’s royal correspondent Jonny Dymond, the royals were caught off guard by the announcement and are “disappointed.”
“BBC understands that no other member of the Royal Family was consulted before Harry and Meghan issued their personal statement tonight, the Palace is understood to be ‘disappointed,’” reported Dymond on Wednesday evening.
In an official statement, the palace said Harry and Meghan are at an “early stage.”
“We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through,” the statement said.
According to the AP, Meghan told the press last year that “her British friends warned her not to marry the prince because of the intense media scrutiny that would follow in his country. But the U.S. television star said she ‘naively’ dismissed the warnings, because as an American she didn’t understand how the British press worked.”
“I never thought this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair. And that is the part that is hard to reconcile,” she said. “But (I) just take each day as it comes.”
The royals have a “crisis” meeting planned for Monday; Meghan will reportedly call-in to the meeting from Canada.