Did Prince William Just Hint at His Rift with Prince Harry?

Prince William may have subtly acknowledged his strained relationship with his brother, Prince Harry, during a recent royal outing.

On June 4, the Prince of Wales opened up about how family can be a “mixed bag” while visiting the Army Air Corps in Wattisham, Suffolk. Prince William, 42, toured the regiments for the first time as Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps, a high-profile role previously believed to have been earmarked for Prince Harry before he stepped back from his royal role in 2020. 

During a conversation with soldiers on a water break from combat training, William brought up the topic of family in a moment that some royal watchers saw as pointed.

According to the Daily Mail, the heir to the throne asked: “‘Is the pace of life good at the moment [?]”

After one man replied that it was “a mixed bag,” William said, “Families okay? See you enough? Some of them might not want to see you that much. It’s a mixed bag sometimes.”

However lighthearted or serious William’s quip may have been, he offered the comment at an interesting time. The Prince of Wales’ visit to the Army Air Corps was meaningful as his first visit to the regiments as honorary colonel, a position King Charles held for 32 years and appointed William to in August 2023 in a reshuffling of royal roles following his accession to the throne.

The move made waves as William became the leader of his estranged brother Harry’s former regiment. Prince Harry, 40, trained as an Army Air Corps pilot in 2009 and served with the combat aviation arm of the British Army during his second tour in Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013. 

It was widely thought that Harry would take over the prestigious role of Colonel-in-Chief one day, but the Duke of Sussex was forced to relinquish his military appointments when he and Meghan Markle departed their royal roles a few years ago.

A distance continues between King Charles’ sons amid an ongoing rift that first became public when Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020. Their relationship further fractured as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke out in several interviews and released their Netflix docuseries, while a bombshell of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare alleged a physical altercation with William.

While Prince William remains estranged from his brother and sister-in-law, some royal observers say that the King, 76, should make the first move to help heal the broken bonds — though hesitation reigns behind closed doors.

“The underlying issue is trust,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith tells PEOPLE in this week’s exclusive cover story. “The King and William don’t trust Harry and Meghan with any kind of confidential conversation.”

Prince William and Prince Harry last appeared in public together with their wives, Kate Middleton and Meghan, to greet mourners who gathered at Windsor Castle following Queen Elizabeth‘s death in September 2022. 

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The brothers kept their distance at the King’s coronation in May 2023, where William prominently paid homage to his father and Harry immediately left after the ceremony to return to California for his son Prince Archie‘s 4th birthday.

Prince William and Prince Harry were most recently in the same place at the same time for the memorial service honoring their late uncle Robert Fellowes in Norfolk in August, but reportedly didn’t cross paths. 

“William and Harry were both there, but we never saw them speak to each other, and they were keeping their distance,” an attendee told The Sun.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Sussex recently told the BBC he “can’t see a world” where he would bring Meghan and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, to the U.K. after losing a legal appeal to restore the state-funded police protection he lost after departing royal duties in 2020.