A former royal equerry has said he remains "optimistic" that brothers Prince Harry and Prince William can reconcile.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, 66, spent two years as the Queen Mother's equerry from 1984 to 1986, and a further eight years as Private Secretary to Prince William, Prince Harry, and the now-Princess of Wales, leaving his role in 2013.
The former SAS soldier is now godson to Prince George, who is second in line to the throne, after spending years helping King Charles's sons grow up.
Speaking to The Times, promoting his upcoming novel Beyond the Edge of Light, Mr Lowther-Pinkerton vowed to "be a better godfather" to the young prince.
"It sounds awful, but I’m a better godfather when it comes time to have a bit of fun," he said.
But it is William - whom he said he "saw as the Lion King" - and Harry that he was able to spend significant time with.
To detail his influence on the two brothers, Harry explained in his memoir, Spare, of a time when he had asked the private secretary for more details on the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
"He said he’d decided against showing me all the police files. He’d gone through and removed the more… 'challenging' ones. 'For your sake'," he said.
"I was frustrated. But I didn’t argue. If JLP didn’t think I could handle them, then I probably couldn’t. I thanked him for protecting me."
The former equerry played a crucial role in their esteemed military careers, something he saw as "important, and described both brothers as "brave".
"When they were soldiers, it was important that they did it right and properly," he explained to the newspaper.
"That’s how I saw that ten years I had [with them], primarily to get it right so they could say, as my Anglo-Irish father used to say, ‘I’ve known the days. I’ve done it.’
"Harry went on operations in Afghanistan twice and [for William] you can look anybody in the eye if you’re flying a Sea King on a fixed bearing through a force 8, force 9, out in the middle of the Irish Sea or the north Atlantic to pick up a sick crewman or fly up against the cliff face of Snowdonia in gusts."
But it is believed the two brothers have not spoken since the late Queen's funeral in 2022, and, despite Harry announcing this week that he will visit the UK along with his wife, Meghan Markle, and two children, Archie and Lilibet, that looks unlikely to change.
While "an agreement" is said to have been drafted to ensure King Charles will once again see his grandchildren, all signs indicate that William is "unlikely" to agree to anything similar.
Mr Lowther-Pinkerton, however, claimed otherwise.
"I'm a perennial optimist," he said when asked about the brother's reported rift.
"I think I’d better steer clear of that Harry issue. What I would say is that I was and am very fond of him."
The Sussexes are due to travel to the UK in July, where Harry will mark the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games, which will be held in Birmingham next summer.
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter
