Business as usual! Prince William and Princess Kate were a united front as they carried out public engagements amid Prince Harry‘s Spare press tour.
The couple were seen out and about in Merseyside on Thursday, January 12, as they prepared to open the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital during their first stop. William, 40, and Kate, 41, were all smiles as they waved to onlookers before going inside.
Ahead of their public appearance, the Prince and Princess of Wales were a topic of conversation in Harry’s recently released memoir. In the book, the Duke of Sussex, 38, recalled the tumultuous moments between him and his brother.
“Two years older than me, Willy was the Heir, whereas I was the Spare. This wasn’t merely how the press referred to us — though it was definitely that. This was shorthand often used by Pa and Mummy and Grandpa. And even Granny,” he wrote about his relationship with William. “I was summoned to provide backup, distraction, diversion and, if necessary, a spare part. Kidney, perhaps. Blood transfusion. Speck of bone marrow. This was all made explicitly clear to me from the start of life’s journey and regularly reinforced after.”
Harry later raised eyebrows with his recollection of a physical fight after William called Meghan Markle “difficult” and “rude.”
“It all happened so fast. So very fast,” Harry detailed. “He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dogs’ bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”
Earlier this month, the BetterUp CIO said his wife, 41, only found out about the altercation when she noticed “scrapes and bruises” on his back.
“He had a few issues which were based not on reality. And I was defending my wife. And he was coming for my wife — she wasn’t there at the time but through the things that he was saying. I was defending myself,” Harry, who shares son Archie, 3, and daughter Lili, 19 months, with Meghan, explained during a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, January 8. “And we moved from one room into the kitchen. And his frustrations were growing and growing and growing. He was shouting at me. I was shouting back at him. It wasn’t nice. It wasn’t pleasant at all. And he snapped. And he pushed me to the floor.”
As the U.K. native continued to discuss his experience in interviews, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that William “doesn’t see how” his younger brother could “come back into the fold” of the royal family.
“At this point, he’s got no plans to speak to Harry,” the insider told Us. “He’s come to terms with the fact [that] he’s lost his little brother and quite possibly for life.”
Scroll on to see William and Kate’s first joint outing amid the Spare claims: