KEEP SMILING

Kate Middleton to Reprise Role as Peacemaker When William and Harry Meet to Unveil Diana Statue

Kate will be required to use all her diplomatic skills to ease the awkwardness levels when warring William and Harry meet face to face next week.

Kate Middleton took on the role of peacemaker between warring brothers William and Harry at the funeral of Prince Philip. She artfully engineered a situation in which the rival princes were filmed chatting apparently amicably to each other after they left the church and walked towards the queen’s private apartments in Windsor Castle.

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So reports that Kate will be present when the brothers unveil a statue in honor of their mother, Princess Diana, next week seem entirely credible. Once again she will be calming the choppy waters separating the brothers.

A source quoted by British newspaper the Mirror said, “The Duchess has seen this project evolve from its conception and now to the finished article and undoubtedly wants to be there to support her husband.

“No doubt there will be tensions between the Cambridges and Harry, but they all recognize that despite the obvious and deep-rooted issues between them, they want the day to be solely about the Princess of Wales’ enduring legacy.”

Neither William’s office at Kensington Palace nor the Sussex’s California-based press operation has yet revealed any precise details of how the event, due to take place a week from Thursday, will be choreographed. However, it is believed that the two brothers will walk together from a private office in Kensington Palace to the Sunken Garden in the palace's public grounds for the ceremonial unveiling of the statue by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley.

It is believed that only a small group of key individuals, including the artist and some of Diana and her children’s closest friends, will be invited to attend the televised ceremony. Prince Charles will not attend and is believed to be planning to retreat to his home in Scotland for several days.

Harry is reportedly heading back to the U.K. in the next few days in preparation for the event. He is expected to quarantine at Frogmore Cottage, the country home he had once expected to live in full time with Meghan but that is now rented to his cousin Eugenie and her husband Jack.

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Expectations that the U.K. trip would provide an opportunity for Harry to sit down and talk with his family are now thought to be optimistic. The author Robert Lacey has revealed in an updated edition of his book Battle of Brothers that senior royals including William and Charles did not want to talk in-depth with Harry for fear their private conversations would be leaked to U.S. broadcasters.

The royals were said to have been particularly annoyed when they were trying to communicate with Harry and Meghan after their bombshell Oprah interview. Assuming the conversations were confidential, Lacey said, they were dismayed when Gayle King told viewers live on TV that the conversations had been “not productive.”

Harry and William are said to be communicating directly via “minimal” text messages about the event, taking place on July 1, which would have been Diana’s 60th birthday.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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