‘Olive Branch’ as Prince William, Kate Middleton, and King Charles Wish Harry Happy Birthday

Happy birthday, brother

There was a major breakthrough in the broken relationship between warring royal brothers Prince Harry and Prince William Sunday, as Kate Middleton and William took to social media to wish the exiled prince a happy 40th birthday.

The dramatic gesture will fuel hopes that the brothers may yet be able to reconcile after King Charles also publicly wished Harry a happy birthday Sunday morning, in what friends of the king told The Daily Beast was a “significant olive branch.”

Kate and William’s message said simply, “Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to The Duke of Sussex!”

The message, posted to Kensington Palace social media channels, also reposted a message sent earlier by the king which contained a slightly different text, reading, “Wishing the Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!”

A friend of the king’s told The Daily Beast they expected Harry and Charles would speak by phone later in the day.

The friend said: “I am sure a call will be scheduled. They spoke on Charles’ birthday. This message is a significant olive branch from the king, and the ball is now in Harry’s court.”

Harry and the king’s relationship has been fraught in recent months, with sources close to Harry telling The Daily Beast that the king stopped taking Harry’s phone calls over the summer.

The king is thought to be profoundly irritated by Harry’s ongoing legal action against the British government seeking to get automatic security for him and his family when in the U.K. He was said to have been avoiding speaking or meeting with Harry out of a concern his son could try and lobby him to intervene in the matter, which could trigger constitutional concerns.

Toby Melville/Reuters/Pool

However, the relationship with the king looks positively friendly compared to that with William. The gulf between the brothers was dramatically illustrated by the fact they were in the same church last month for the funeral of their uncle, but didn’t speak to each other.

But there was widespread relief in Buckingham Palace when Harry’s publisher announced that the paperback edition of Spare, his mega-selling memoir, would not include any new material.

The breakthrough comes amid a British poll showing a huge rise in support for Prince Harry returning to royal duties—a third of Britons would support Prince Harry’s return a survey for the Mail on Sunday has revealed.

Lonely Harry’s “best friend” is his security guard

That Prince Harry, once a gregarious young man with a huge circle of friends, now has a small number of intimates, is not generally disputed, even by those closest to him. Indeed, stories appearing this week of how he intends to go away on a birthday hiking trip all seem to trumpet the small and tight nature of the gang who will be accompanying him.

However, it will come as a shock to many to hear that one of those close pals is his former British police security guard David Langdown, known as “Langers,” who now works for Harry on a freelance basis. Langdown, who guarded Harry for over a decade, was with the prince on his trip to Las Vegas where he needed up being photographed naked at a party in his suite.

The Sun says that Langdown has become Harry’s best friend with a source saying: “The guard is an English guy who moved to Montecito with his family. He and Harry are very close, very tight. As thick as thieves.”

The source also claimed that Harry’s “circle of friends has been curated by Meghan (Markle, his wife). His social life seems to be more and more guided and built by her.”

Harry will “never” admit anything is his fault

Yes, it is Prince Harry’s 40^th birthday today, and the question being chewed over in the Mail is a familiar, echoing one: can he ever make up with his family, after all the scandals and controversies of the past?

While William and the king’s messages on social media today are a good start, someone who has known Harry since he was young tells the Mail the prince has never been one for saying sorry, or even admitting he was wrong.

“Maybe he’ll feel some sorrow at the way things have turned out, but he’ll never admit that any of it was his fault.”

Ruben Sprich/Reuters

“Turning 40 may prompt him to reflect on his life but, astonishingly, they believe Harry remains hurt and angry that no one is begging him to come back into the royal fold—and this is yet another impasse to any rapprochement in the near future,” writes royal correspondent Rebecca English.

Palace sources say the “Sussex situation” wasn’t handled well by the powers-that-be, although Harry and Meghan made everything “exhaustingly difficult,” seeing conspiracy at every turn.

Leaving Britain seemed the right thing all-round. “He wasn’t happy, he couldn’t hide that and he needed to make a break. It was a horrible, toxic atmosphere,” one source tells the Mail.

“However, it was the way Harry went about cutting ties, his laser-focused determination to wreak an almost Biblical vengeance on his family, the determination to spill his guts at any cost, that has truly ruptured bonds with those—both family and friends—who once loved and doted on him.” English writes.

Prince William was reportedly still open to speaking to Harry after Harry and Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview, but continued attacks, and especially his dish-all memoir Spare had torpedoed any hopes of reconciliation.

“The relationship [between the brothers] is non-existent,” a source says. “William feels betrayed and has other priorities.”

Toby Melville/Reuters

A Harry supporter says the brothers’ relationship is a “complicated beast,” adding, “I’d still like to think they might talk, one day. But there’s a long road ahead and we certainly aren’t any closer to that today.”

Harry would like to reconcile with King Charles, sources say, particularly given the latter’s cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, when details of Harry’s phone call to his dad to mark Charles’ 75^th birthday were leaked, that set back royal relations once more.

To judge by the king’s warm message today, it looks like he is giving Harry another chance.

There is no doubt, however, that the conflict between the two has been exacerbated by Harry believing that Charles has the “power to overturn the decision by RAVEC (the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures) to strip him of protection,” when traveling to the U.K. (Charles is adamant he does not.) Then there is Harry’s relationship with Queen Camilla, who he infamously said had left “bodies in the street” in her ascent within the royal family.

For now, sources told the paper, Harry’s calls and letters to his father go unanswered.

Still—as the various messages on social media today show—hope springs eternal. “The U.K. is his home, it’s where he grew up, it’s where his family and friends and a lot of his interests are,” someone who knows Harry well tells the paper. “The sense I get is that there is a desire for some kind rapprochement. Clearly that will take time and patience. Let’s just say there’s a hope there will be more positive conversations in the future.”

Heir heads

Prince William made a surprise landing at Oxford Airport on Friday, for the official opening of a new Airbus Helicopters headquarters there. He made the visit in support of London Air Ambulance, the charity of which he is patron. He was spotted inspecting a new Airbus H135, which the charity will shortly take delivery of, the Daily Telegraph reported.

William flew a version of the craft when he worked for East Anglian Air Ambulance from 2015 to 2017.

Stefan Rousseau WPA – Pool/Getty Images

Earlier in the week, as The Daily Beast reported, William’s eldest son, Prince George, had his first flying lesson at an airfield near his Middleton grandparent’s home. “He loved it. It’s the right time to start,” a bystander said.

Puppy love

Kate’s brother James Middleton had a dog, Ella, the love of which, he says in a new memoir, prevented him from committing suicide. In the memoir he also discusses some interactions with Prince William. In one extract published today in the Daily Mail, he says that he put William “through his paces when we first met,” asking, “Did he deserve my sister? He had to earn my trust.”

What ultimately brought the boys together seems to be—you guessed it—the dog. James says William was “smitten” with Ella and adds that she gave him a good excuse to dodge Middleton card game sessions.

Kirsty O’Connor/PA Images via Getty Images

“William would flinch at our ruthless determination to win at all costs. He’d be delighted to be the first out, and when no longer compelled to take part, he’d slink off to cuddle Ella. Better still, he’d absent himself from the game entirely. ‘James, does Ella need a walk?’ he’d ask before we’d even started dealing the cards. My sisters and I would exchange a knowing glance: William, for all the competitive rigour of his military training, was happy to be a loser at cards.”

This week in royal history

Two years ago, the U.K. was in the thick of the official mourning period for the late Queen Elizabeth. She was buried in Windsor on Sept. 19, 11 days after her death. The funeral had been planned to take place ten days after her death, but an extra day was added to Operation London Bridge to allow for extra ceremony in Scotland, where the queen died.

Frank Augstein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Unanswered questions

Do the warm birthday messages to Harry from Charles, William, and Kate mean that the big royal reconciliation is ON?