How can siblings like William and Harry overcome family feuds when a parent is sick?

Harry travelled back to the UK on Tuesday, making a 26-hour flying visit which included a 45-minute reunion with his father. He didn’t, however, meet with his older brother and his sister-in-law, writes Katie Rosseinsky

Charles's sons Prince Harry and Prince William. Photo: Getty

Katie Rosseinsky
© UK Independent

Prince William and Harry currently face an unenviable situation. Their father, King Charles, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this week; now they must embark on the emotionally draining process of supporting a parent through illness. This scenario is difficult enough – it’s often the first time that roles are reversed, when you must take care of the person who’s always taken care of you. But what happens when this painful moment is made even more challenging by fraught sibling relationships?

This week, we’ve seen this uncomfortable dynamic play out in real time. Harry travelled back to the UK on Tuesday, making a 26-hour flying visit which included a 45-minute reunion with his father. He didn’t, however, meet with his older brother and his sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales (who is currently recovering from abdominal surgery). A rapprochement, it seems, is sadly off the table for now. Indeed, not much appears to have changed between the brothers since the release of Harry’s autobiography Spare dug an even greater gulf between them, making public details of their frosty relationship (like a now-infamous incident when Wills allegedly knocked his younger sibling backwards into a dog bowl).