The public believed that Prince William and Prince Harry were the best of friends and would always be there for each other. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, they had a sibling rivalry and decided to take two different paths in life.

For years, the public believed that Prince William and Prince Harry were the best of friends and would always be there for each other. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, they had a sibling rivalry and decided to take two different paths in life.

While William’s future is completely mapped out for him, Harry’s is uncertain. Now, someone who used to work for the royal family and knows the princes believes the Duke of Sussex has gone on a path of self-destruction and because of that a reconciliation with the future king won’t happen. Paul Burrell began working in the royal household when he was 18 years old and served as Queen Elizabeth II‘s personal footman. In 1987, he was moved to the household of then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana. When they separated, Burrell served as Diana’s butler and looked after her and her sons until the princess’s death in 1997.

Speaking on behalf of Slingo, Burrell said: “I can’t see when William becomes king that there will be a place for Harry. I think William is resilient now. He is quite stubborn and has thought to himself ‘I can’t be doing this. This isn’t right. This is not what our mother wanted. William’s patience has gone and he has had enough so I can’t see any reconciliation.”

Diana’s former butler continued: “I think [Harry] might be holding out hope for when William becomes king. Harry believed there would be a new chapter and a new leaf with a place for him, but he would be so estranged by then that he would be barely recognizable to the public, and I’m not sure they want him back on a full-time role. He is quite destructive and to have someone like Harry would bring a fault line to the royal family because you never know what he is going to do next.

“Now he is a resident of America, he always has that possibility of going back to the States to spill the beans and that is not what William wants: he wants privacy and stability, and he can’t have that with Harry standing beside him.” Burrell also opined that if Princess Diana were still alive today, this entire feud between the brothers and the Sussexes’ “mess” with the royal family wouldn’t have happened.

According to Burrell, “The [royals] are just letting him get on with it now. I don’t think they are too happy about it but Harry is taking another step closer all the time to isolation. Harry has pressed the self-destruct button and he is going ahead with what he thinks is right and I think he will come unstuck. I don’t think all [the Sussexes’] plans are going to pan out. I think there is a time scale to his destruction.

“None of this would have happened and there wouldn’t be this mess if Diana was still here because she would have cleared it up. But there is no one to do it [now] and so it is going to rumble on because nobody is brave enough to stick their neck out and no one is strong enough for Harry to listen to.”