Prince Harry has quietly reunited with one of his family members after returning to the UK.
The Duke of Sussex, 42, has been vocal about his hopes for a royal reunion, but while Prince William still appears unconvinced, the Spencers have welcomed Harry with open arms.
Harry attended the Leicester Tigers VS Gloucester rugby match in Leicester on Friday, October 9, with his cousin, George McCorquodale, in a rare joint public sighting.
George is the son of Sarah McCorquodale, Princess Diana’s older sister, and the pair have remained close since Harry left the UK with Meghan Markle in 2020.
Who is George McCorquodale?
Harry and George were born just two months apart and grew up together. George and his sisters, Celia and Emily, have all kept in touch with Harry over the years.
Celia got married shortly after Harry and Meghan’s 2018 royal wedding, and the couple attended her nuptials in support.
Diana’s siblings, Sarah, Charles Spencer and Jane Fellowes, have all publicly supported Harry at various events over the years.
While Harry’s relations with the royal family remain strained, his connection with the Spencers has flourished.
Harry and Meghan stayed at the Spencer family estate when they visited the UK over the British summer, just weeks before moving to the Cotswolds with their kids, Archie and Lilibet.
There were worries that Earl Spencer’s Diana memoir, Swan Song, would strain relations between the Spencers and Harry.
Earl Spencer only told Harry and William, and his sisters Sarah and Jane, about the controversial book shortly before its release.
“I decided not to have anyone involved in the book, so no one knew about it except my wife, obviously, and the publishers,” he shared.
“I didn’t tell any of the family until just before it was released publicly as a thing because I didn’t want anyone to think – particularly with Harry, who people know I had to stay in the summer – that he was in any way involved in this. It was really important for me that they weren’t.”
However, it doesn’t appear to have affected Harry’s relationship with his cousin, George.
What have the Spencers said about Swan Song?
In fact, New Idea hears that Earl Spencer’s siblings, Sarah, 71, and Jane, 69, were actually not in support of their brother’s release to begin with.
The sisters were said to be “heartbroken” that the memoir wasn’t a straight tribute to Diana and has instead added to chatter about Harry’s royal estrangement.
“Lady Sarah and Lady Jane gave up ever trying to keep their little brother under control decades ago and while they’ll never comment on his book, it’s understood they were against it from the start,” an insider recently told us.
“They’re not the only ones in the Spencer family disappointed about Charles’s book – they were promised a homage to Diana and instead it’s turned into yet more fodder.
“It’s made an already difficult familial situation even more complicated as Charles has been estranged from most of his family for years.”
Thankfully, for Harry, his relationship with the Spencers appears largely unaffected by the drama.
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