A Bond Forever Broken Wills & Harry's Emotional Goodbye

It ended in an uncomfortable hug, but the hurt runs deep between Diana’s boys

One year, nine months and 19 days after their lavish Windsor Castle wedding, Prince Harry took his final bow on the royal stage before turning his back on his family and title for a new life in Canada with Meghan and baby Archie.

Solemnly taking his seat alongside his beaming wife at Westminster Abbey for the annual Commonwealth Day Service, the 35-yearold seemed barely able to muster a smile – his sadness mirrored on the faces of his royal relatives, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and his grandmother, the Queen.

If royal watchers had expected a show of family unity at the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ final outing, they were surely left disappointed.

“There was a feeling of real sadness to the occasion,” told an onlooker after the service. “The tension was palpable, and it seemed as though Harry was determinedly avoiding eye contact with those around him. It was heartbreaking to watch.”

The gap between the once-close brothers was particularly poignant inside the ancient walls of the abbey, where 23 years earlier, Princes William and Harry sat side by side, united in grief during their mother Diana’s funeral. In 2011, they were there again, as a proud Harry supported his nervous brother on his wedding day. But this time, they shared only the briefest “hello”, the gap between them achingly obvious.

And now, Woman’s Day can reveal that just hours before the service, the Sussexes and the Cambridges came face-to-face at an emotional final showdown at Buckingham Palace.

According to our well-placed source, the foursome, who hadn’t seen each other since Harry’s bombshell decision to step away from the royal family to pursue “financial independence”, met at one of the palace’s private apartments to say goodbye – a move instigated by Harry himself.