Ever since Harry married Meghan Markle there has been talk of a rift between them and Prince William and Kate.
Despite initial optimism that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would be a “fab four” the couples are rarely seen together nowadays.
It is believed it started with William cautioning his younger brother against a whirlwind romance that saw Harry tie the knot after just 18 months of dating.
Then, not long after the royal wedding, Harry and Meghan split from Kensington Palace and set up a separate household in Frogmore Cottage, Windsor.
A source told The Sun at the time: “The initial plan was for Harry and Meghan to move out of their cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace and into one of the main apartments.
“But there has been a bit of tension between the brothers.”
Then it emerged that Meghan had made Kate cry during a dress-fitting for Princess Charlotte.
An insider told The Telegraph: “Kate had only just given birth to Prince Louis and was feeling quite emotional.”
More recently, Harry admitted that he and his brother are “on different paths” at the moment and do not see each other as much as when they were younger.
When Harry and Meghan announced that they were stepping down as senior royals, William is said to have been furious about the timing, which came earlier than the Queen had allowed and also a day before Kate’s birthday.
All this is particularly heartbreaking when you consider not only how close William and Harry used to be, but also how close Harry was with his sister-in-law Kate.
Ever since William and Kate started dating back in 2003, Harry has also been a part of their lives.
Adorable pictures from 2008 show the pair laughing and chatting during a service for the Most Noble Order of the Garter at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
On June 16, 2008, William was made Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, exactly 40 years after his father received the same honour.
His brother and girlfriend watched him receive his garter robes, all smiles, and they appeared to share a joke between the two of them.
Kate can also be seen leaning affectionately on Harry and touching his arm, implying that by this point they were already good friends.
The three of them – William, Kate and Harry – used to go to royal events such as Trooping the Colour together and even set up a joint passion project, a mental health campaign called Heads Together.
In a 2017 Newsweek profile of Prince Harry, Kate’s role in his life was exposed as something of a “big sister”.
It read: “There was no one filling the hole left by Diana’s death, and Harry seemed to be growing up without someone emotionally available he could lean on.
Kate has helped fill some of that gap.
“When she and William got engaged, Harry called her the big sister he never had.
“He often pops into their apartment at Kensington Palace, where she cooks him a meal – roast chicken is reportedly a particular favourite.”
The pair reportedly share a love of Game of Thrones, and Kate is believed to give him “sensible romantic advice”.
Indeed, Kate was one of the first family members to be introduced to his future wife Meghan.
An insider told the Daily Mail: “Kate has quite a different relationship with Harry than she has with William.
“Harry appeals to her sillier side, because he is carefree, footloose and loves banter.
“He finds things funny about people and says so.”
Harry was also a doting uncle to Prince George and Princess Charlotte, but the rift was already beginning to form when Louis was born.
This relationship makes it all the more heartbreaking now that their relationship has become more distant.
Some sources have claimed that Harry and William’s bond is “almost irretrievably broken” because William “refused to roll out the red carpet” for Meghan.
The two couples are rarely seen together and, apart from a brief reunion during crunch talks over Megxit at the Sandringham Summit, Harry has not appeared to make much of an effort to see William and his family in recent weeks.