Photos show how Prince Harry and Prince William's relationship has changed through the years

Harry was born on September 15, 1984, and though he was photographed for the first time just a day later, he wasn't pictured with his brother, then 2 years old, until the following month.

William sat on the floor in front of Princess Diana, who held an infant Harry in her arms.

William posed for a few photos at Harry's christening, including a shot with his parents, Queen Elizabeth, and the Queen Mother.

In the photo, baby Harry reaches out to touch his big brother.

The brothers seemed to have a close relationship from a young age, as the pair were often side by side in pictures.

In this shot, they play the piano together with Diana at Kensington Palace.

Cameras captured the brothers playing at Highgrove House, where they lived with Diana and Charles when they were young.

William waited at the bottom of a slide as Harry made his way down.

Harry and William were typically photographed with one or both of their parents when they were children. For instance, the palace shared a photo of the pair on bicycles with their parents in 1989 on the Isles of Scilly.

Charles and Diana officially separated in December 1992 after years of turmoil.

Harry and William continued to appear separately with their parents, and they seemed cheerful despite the change in their home life. In April 1993, they grinned widely during a visit to Thorpe Park with Diana, not caring that a ride got them wet.

The brothers attended the same boarding school, Eton College. Prince George attends the prestigious school as of 2026.

When William enrolled in 1995, Harry accompanied their parents to drop him off, giving him a familial send-off.

Harry later joined William at Eton in 1998, though he said in his memoir "Spare" that William asked him "to pretend [he] didn't know him" at the school.

The brothers were vacationing at Balmoral Castle in Scotland with their father when their mother died on August 31, 1997.

Harry said in his memoir "Spare" that Charles personally told him his mother had died, though he didn't hug him when delivering the news.

On August 16, two weeks before Diana's death, photographers captured William and Harry exploring the grounds of the royal retreat with their father.

During Diana's funeral, William and Harry, who were 15 and 12 at the time, walked behind her coffin as it processed from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.

Charles and Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, accompanied the boys, as did their grandfather, Prince Philip.

Harry and William spent much of their teens in school, but when they appeared with the royal family, they were typically together, such as at the Queen Mother's birthday celebration in August 2001.

Prince William later said that they were "uniquely bonded because of what we've been through" when speaking of Diana's death in a 2015 video shared by Time.

William attended the University of St Andrews, where he met Kate Middleton, while Harry took a gap year after graduating from Eton.

However, in 2009, they were both in training to fly helicopters as part of their service in the Royal Air Force, and they shared a cottage during the experience.

They jokingly told the BBC it would be their "first and last time living together," with William saying Harry snored and that he often tidied up after him.

Harry wrote in "Spare" that he didn't snore and cleaned up after himself, so he found his brother's comments puzzling.

William and Kate tied the knot at Westminster Abbey.

Harry was by William's side for the occasion, serving as his best man. They were photographed chatting before Kate walked down the aisle.

Harry later wrote in "Spare" that although he was excited that Kate was joining their family, he felt, to some extent, like he was losing his brother as he got married.

The trio often looked gleeful when attending events together, including formal events like Trooping the Colour and more casual engagements.

In August 2012, they were photographed celebrating at the London 2012 Olympic Games after watching an event together.

Harry was far from a third wheel in this trio, with the three often taking on charitable endeavors.

For instance, William and Kate partnered with the younger royal to launch Heads Together, a mental health initiative, in 2016.

Harry and Meghan got engaged in November 2017, and Meghan joined the royal family the next month for their annual Christmas walk at Sandringham.

The newly engaged couple walked with Kate and William, and British media outlets were quick to label the two couples "the Fab Four" after the joint appearance.

In December 2017, the two attended a "Star Wars" premiere without their significant others, grinning in black tuxedos.

Just as Harry did for him, William served as his brother's best man for his May 2018 wedding.

However, behind the scenes, there was tension between Meghan and Kate ahead of the wedding. Meghan shared in her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey that Kate made her cry during a disagreement about a flower girl dress, which she later apologized for.

British media outlets had reported in 2018 that Meghan had made Kate cry, and the Duchess of Sussex told Winfrey she found it "shocking" that the opposite story would be made public.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have never publicly commented on Meghan's account of the incident.

As Harry and Meghan established themselves as a royal couple, they often appeared alongside William and Kate, promoting charitable causes as a unit.

However, after Harry and Meghan announced they were resigning from their joint charity with William and Kate, The Royal Foundation, in June 2019 to start their own charity, the couples weren't pictured together for months.

Harry publicly confirmed a rift between him and William during an interview for an ITV documentary in October 2019.

"We're certainly on different paths at the moment, but I'll always be there for him, and as I know he'll always be there for me," Harry said.

"We don't see each other as much as we used to because we're so busy, but I love him dearly," Harry added. "The majority of this stuff is created out of nothing, but as brothers, you know, you have good days, you have bad days."

A month later, the brothers and their wives attended a Remembrance event, but they weren't photographed speaking to each other, fueling further speculation about the rift. A day later, William and Harry processed together in a memorial ceremony, both looking serious.

Two months after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were stepping back as working royals, Harry and Meghan attended their final royal engagement, a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey.

The brothers didn't appear to speak, and Harry has since said it "felt cold" with his family at the event.

Harry and Meghan left for North America shortly after the event, first moving to Canada before ending up in California. The brothers wouldn't see each other for over a year.

Harry and Meghan's tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey aired in March 2021. The couple opened up about some of their conflicts with the royal family, including the flower-girl dress debacle involving Kate and Meghan. They also said that unnamed members of the family had speculated about Archie's skin tone ahead of his birth.

The same month, William said he hadn't spoken to Harry since his tell-all interview with Winfrey, and, in response to some of Harry's claims, said the royals are "very much not a racist family."

A month later, Prince Philip died at 99, and Harry returned to the UK for his funeral. Both brothers walked behind their grandfather's coffin at the ceremony, but their cousin, Peter Phillips, walked between them.

The brothers made a joint statement to mark the statue's unveiling, which took place on what would have been Diana's 60th birthday.

They were spotted speaking to each other after the unveiling.

Unlike at Prince Philip's funeral, Harry and William walked side by side at Queen Elizabeth's service, an experience that William said reminded him of his mother's funeral.

The procession would mark the last time the brothers performed a royal duty together to date.

A few months later, in December 2022, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, "Harry & Meghan," premiered, in which Harry spoke candidly about his relationship with William. He went into further detail about their conflicts in his January 2023 memoir, "Spare," calling him his "beloved brother" and "arch nemesis" in the text and saying William physically attacked him in 2019. William has not publicly commented on Harry's memoir as of October 2026.

Harry also wrote in his book that he and William barely spoke at their grandmother's funeral.

Harry traveled to London for his father's coronation, though he didn't appear to interact with his brother at all during the ceremony.

They entered separately, and Harry was seated a few rows behind William and his family. Harry was spotted looking at his elder brother during the event, though William didn't return the favor.

William and Harry's relationship has remained distant since 2023, though Harry visited his father a handful of times following the king's cancer diagnosis. Harry has also said he wishes to reconcile with his family on multiple occasions.

In a January 2023 interview with ITV, he said, "I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back." In May 2025, he said in an interview with BBC News that he "would love a reconciliation" with his family, but added that his legal struggles to secure protection for his wife and children in the UK were a barrier to their relationship.

Likewise, he told The Guardian in September 2025 that he saw his memoir as a step toward a better relationship with his family: "You cannot have reconciliation before you have truth."

Harry and Meghan moved back to the United Kingdom in September with their children, creating greater potential for a reunion between the brothers. The couple set up a home near London and enrolled Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, in school.

William and Harry have not been photographed in public together since Harry's move, and no reports of private visits with each other have surfaced as of October.