During and after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s humanitarian trip to Jordan, we watched Prince William have a massive crashout, all of which was documented by the American and British tabloids. Over the weekend, Prince Harry and Meghan’s office confirmed an upcoming trip to Australia, a British/commonwealth realm. I knew we were in store for many tantrums from “palace sources” and “royal insiders.” But I didn’t expect it to come via the Wall Street Journal, in a pseudo-elevated piece called “Harry, William and the Royal Rift That Won’t Heal.” It’s a long read, with the bulk of the sourcing coming from royalists and people in Prince William’s camp. It reminds me a bit of the infamous “The Other Brother” Times cover story several years back, with sources swearing up and down that people love William’s awkward, uncomfortable, angry energy and “sources” layering in complaints and lies about Harry. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

Harry’s Montecito struggles: While William’s future appears more predictable than ever, Harry, a man who grew up in Kensington Palace and remains fifth in line to the British throne, today lives far from Britain, literally and figuratively. Recent business ventures have struggled, the Hollywood production deals that initially subsidized his exit are drying up, and his nonprofit arm laid off much of its staff shortly before Christmas. Those who know Harry describe him as happily settled into family life in Montecito, continuing to advocate for the causes he cares about, and often starting his day as his older brother does: with school drop-off. But some who have spent time with him in recent months have also found him adrift and isolated, with Meghan chasing new pursuits as he passes the time in his sleepy new hometown.

The brothers’ rift: King Charles entertains calls from Harry, and vice versa, but William has cut ties with his brother as he sketches out plans for a reign free of the kind of familial blowups—from Uncle Andrew on down—that have tainted the Windsor brand over the past four decades. William, 43 years old, and Harry, 41, haven’t spoken in years, and it’s unlikely they will ever fully make up, according to colleagues, friends and associates of both men. “The prospects of reconciliation are pretty remote,” says Sally Bedell Smith, who has written several royal biographies. “There are just so many wounding and damaging revelations.”

The Sussexes might get their security back in the UK: The culmination of the prince’s various legal battles with the press could also smooth the way for father and son to be publicly reconciled at an Invictus Games event for wounded servicemen in 2027, aides say.

Banquo’s Ghost: Still, the more Harry struggles to forge a new existence, the more he appears to be refocusing on what he knows best: riffing on his own persona of the amiable, accessible royal, undertaking pseudo-royal visits to draw attention to good deeds across the globe. When William comes to the throne, Harry will always be in the background, a foil, a potential distraction and a constant reminder of a regal brotherly duo that could have been. In a royal life already marked by tragedy, this latest act could cast Harry in an appropriately Shakespearean role, a Banquo’s ghost at Prince William’s table.

William’s privacy: For William, Spare was a gut punch, people who know him say. Not only did it damage the family brand in his view, it severed a bond of trust between the brothers. Spare painted William as the hotheaded older brother who pushed his sibling to the ground during an argument. It shattered the Windsor mantra of “never complain, never explain,” stripping back the mystique of monarchy, revealing a somewhat dysfunctional family trapped inside an institution it struggles to manage. “William takes his privacy very seriously,” says Robert Hardman, author of The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy. “The fact that Harry’s book said out loud all those things said in private, that really hurt.” Hardman says William never read the book in full and was instead briefed by aides on its contents.

The decrepit working royals: Harry and Meghan’s lasting absence has created a manpower problem. William and Kate are the only full-time working British royals under the age of 60. The younger Windsors are eschewing the grinding rounds of endless ribbon-cutting their forebears engaged in to try to make fewer, more high-impact interventions heralded to the nation via social media.

Harry should have been a working royal too: And herein lies one of the central ironies of the Windsor story today: Those who have worked with Harry in the U.S. say he would have also made a great working royal. Since leaving his royal duties, Harry has embarked on tours of foreign countries that, from a distance, resemble those of the Windsor travels around the Commonwealth. He is a natural with kids and strangers, and colleagues have been touched when he talks of inheriting a role of service from his mother. He remains the driving force of the Invictus Games, which started with veterans, including some injured on the same tour as the prince. Last year, he traveled around Britain meeting with charity leaders and army veterans and engaging in balloon fights with children, with the kind of warm approach that had once made him so popular in the country. Shortly after, he visited Ukraine to meet with injured veterans. He raised eyebrows in Buckingham Palace when he then traveled to Canada to meet military veterans in the lead-up to Remembrance Day, traditionally a centerpiece event for the British royal family, where fallen soldiers are honored.

Changing the Archewell Foundation to Archewell Philanthropies: The dissolving of the foundation has left the couple with little to work on together, say former employees. Meghan continues to try to expand As Ever. Harry is known to play polo at a nearby club, and the couple socialize with entertainment executives with homes in the area, such as Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who gave them their first major production deal… The prince undertakes paid speaking work, including in December traveling to Toronto to address the Ontario Real Estate Association. But for much of the time, Harry is at home. The town around the Sussexes looks like a sun-kissed version of a Windsor Estate, with green acres and wide expanses.

The Windsors ignored the Duke of Windsor: The same strategy is being applied to the Duke of Sussex, but some royal watchers fret that the relationship could get worse before it gets better. The Duchess of Sussex could write her own memoirs or more freely air her views on American politics, though associates say she has been loath to weigh in on any topic that might invite the slightest controversy. Harry has in the past hinted he has enough leftover material from Spare to write a new book.

Harry needs to apologize, you guys: Others see the only way forward as reconciliation and bringing Harry back into some sort of royal orbit. The stumbling block, says the author Bedell Smith, is that Harry doesn’t seem inclined to apologize.

Harry would need his brother’s consent to remarry: For now, the hidebound traditions of royalty loom over their relationship. Harry remains family and fifth in line to the British throne. But when William becomes king, he will be able to wield power over the Sussexes, including the ability to strip them and their children of their titles if they step out of line or, in an extreme circumstance, removing his brother entirely from the line of succession. And if Harry were ever to remarry, he would have to ask the king to consent first.

[From WSJ]

I’ve already seen Tom Sykes pick up on the claims that Harry is just sitting around at home while Meghan builds As Ever. I cannot emphasize this enough: all of the “Harry has nothing to do in Montecito” narratives are coming from Kensington Palace. It’s an admission that Prince William and his staff obsessively keep tabs on Harry and try to figure out what he’s working on and what he’s doing. The fact that Harry moves like a shark pisses off his brother most of all. But the point of all of this is multifold: to whine about Harry stealing the Windsors’ thunder; to embiggen an angry, illiterate bald demon; and to remind Harry that he still could be a working royal, if he would just apologize to William and divorce Meghan!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.