Prince William, Prince Harry show brotherly unity with strongly worded statement

Prince William and Prince Harry's ongoing feud has been widely covered, but there was a moment of unity despite their tensions. 

At the start of 2020, the royal family faced unprecedented challenges. On January 10, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they were stepping down as senior royals, less than two years after their wedding. 

This led to an emergency meeting on January 13, known as the 'Sandringham Summit,' involving the Queen, then-Prince Charles, Prince William, and Harry. Just hours before these crucial talks, William and Harry issued a strongly-worded statement addressing their relationship.

The statement aimed to refute "false" claims that their bond had been strained by allegations of bullying. This followed a report from The Times suggesting the Sussexes felt they had been "pushed out" and "bullied" by William.

The statement read: "Despite clear denials, a false story ran in a UK newspaper today speculating about the relationship between the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Cambridge. For brothers who care so deeply about the issues surrounding mental health, the use of inflammatory language in this way is offensive and potentially harmful."

However, despite this initial show of unity, Harry later went on to pour cold water over the statement. Speaking in his tell-all Netflix show, Harry & Meghan, the Duke denied giving his permission for it to be released in the first place. 

Speaking over clips showing the brothers playing in an old fire truck alongside newspaper headlines about the acrimony in their relationship in episode five, Harry said: "I mean, the saddest part of it was this wedge created between me and my brother so that he's now on the institution's side.

"And I get, part of that I get. I understand, right? That’s his inheritance, so to some extent it's already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability and the continuation of this institution. That day, a story came out that part of the reason why Meghan and I were leaving was because William had bullied us out.

And once I got in the car after the meeting, I was told about a joint statement that had been put out in my name and my brother's name squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family.

"I couldn't believe it. No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. And I rang M and I told her and she burst into floods of tears because within four hours they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us."