It’s before ‘Spare,’ the Netflix doc, and even before Harry’s big move to California.

Even the most die-hard royal fans think that they know exactly when Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William, started to drift apart. But according to an insider, the actual timing of the rift may be surprising—and it’s way before Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix docu-series, before they moved to America, and even before Spare.

Robert Lacey, author of Battle of the Brothers, shared that Harry and William were no longer on speaking terms back in October 2018—which was before the Sussexes toured Australia. He points at the bullying allegations made against Markle as the catalyst for the whole feud. Harry and his wife have denied the claims, but while those rumors were making headlines, Harry reached out to William for help and didn’t get any. Lacey notes that William decided to “throw Harry out.”

“Meghan portrayed herself as the victim, but she was the bully. People felt run over by her,” Lacey cited, noting that he’d heard Kensington Palace insiders whispering about the situation long before it was made public in 2021. “They thought she was a complete narcissist and sociopath—basically unhinged.”

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Jason Knauf, who worked for Markle and Harry as a communications secretary, claimed that Meghan “drove two personal assistants out of the household and was undermining the confidence of a third staff member.” The Times reported that Harry “pleaded” with his brother not to pursue the case, but his legal team denied that anything like that happened.

Harry and Markle released a statement refuting the allegations, claiming she was a victim of a “calculated smear campaign.”

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Harry dropped hints about his relationship with William during an appearance on ITV’s 2019 documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey.

“Part of this role and part of this job, and this family, being under the pressure that it’s under, inevitably, you know, stuff happens,” he said at the time. “But look, we’re brothers, we’ll always be brothers. And we’re certainly on different paths at the moment, but I’ll always be there for him, as I know he’ll always be there for me.”