Prince Harry Tells Stephen Colbert How Princess Diana Would Handle Rift With Brother

Prince Harry and Prince William are going through a difficult time in their relationship right now. The brothers are reportedly not on speaking terms, a situation that is presumably not going to be helped by the release of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare. The two appear to be at a bit of an impasse, and the Duke of Sussex fully believes things would not have gotten this far if their mother Princess Diana was still alive.

The father of two sat down for an interview with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday to discuss his relationship with the royal family, his new book, what his life looks like now, and of course, as ever, his late mom Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

“If your mother were still alive, do you ever think about how she might handle this moment?” Colbert asked Prince Harry. As far as he’s concerned, if his mother were still alive he believes things would be very different. “We wouldn't have got to this moment. It's impossible to say where we would be now — where those relationships would be now — but there is no way that the distance between my brother and I would be the same.”

Certainly Princess Diana would presumably have encouraged her sons to maintain their relationship. Especially as the two men have five children between them who don’t get to enjoy the same sort of close-knit cousin relationship they themselves enjoyed. Prince Harry admitted in an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby that he would love his two children with wife Meghan Markle, 3-year-old Archie and 1-year-old Lilibet, to have a relationship with the royal family. But unfortunately, that doesn’t look as though it will happen any time soon.

Princess Diana might not be here to step in, but King Charles himself has certainly tried, according to an excerpt from Spare. When his sons were fighting outside Frogmore Cottage the distraught father said, per Prince Harry, “Enough! Please don’t make my final years a misery.”

For now, things between Prince William and Prince Harry are not getting anywhere. Prince William has not responded to allegations from his younger brother that he once physically attacked him, but his silence seems to speak volumes.

If their mother had lived, perhaps she could have brokered peace between her two sons. The men who “loved her best,” Prince Harry wrote in Spare. And who she loved best in return.