When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shocked the world by quitting as working royals, nobody could have predicted what was to happen next.
Exactly four years ago today, the Sussexes sensationally stepped down from their roles to carve out new lives away from the royal fold. However, it appears to have come at a price with many of their relationships with the royal relatives suffering since what happened that day.
In the past four years, they've signed multi-million dollar deals with the likes of Netflix, given a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey and Harry released his controversial tell-all memoir. And it seems Harry in particular has found his family bonds with certain relatives rockier than ever...
King Charles
When it came to his father King Charles, Harry previously had a good relationship with him. But all that unravelled in the bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. During the tell-all chat, Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially and claimed he had stopped taking his calls. "My family literally cut me off financially," Harry said in March 2021.
A further flashpoint came when the late Queen was in her final hours at her beloved Scottish Highlands home Balmoral. Harry and Meghan just happened to be in the UK on a charity visit when it emerged the former monarch's health had taken a turn for the worse and royals raced to be with her.
Among them were William, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, who took a flight from London to Scotland. Harry took a separate private jet and wrote in his memoir Spare how he was told wife Meghan shouldn't come with him as Kate, the now Princess of Wales and wife of William, wasn't going either.
He writes his father told him he was welcome at Balmoral "but he didn't want... her". He explains: "He started to lay out his reason, which was nonsensical, and disrespectful, and I wasn’t having it. Don't ever speak about my wife that way. He stammered, apologetic, saying he simply didn't want a lot of people around. No other wives were coming, Kate wasn't coming, he said, therefore Meg shouldn't."
Last year also proved rocky when it emerged Charles had asked Harry and Meghan to vacate their UK home Frogmore Cottage. But in November, and despite the distance, it seems there was a thawing of relations between Harry and his father. It was revealed the Duke of Sussex telephoned the King to wish him a happy birthday as his father celebrated turning 75 on November 14.
The Duke of Sussex called his 'Pa' following a day of engagements for the monarch, although the pair had barely been on speaking terms for months. Royal sources said it was likely to be a "nice surprise" for the King, who had not heard from Harry, either by phone or message, "for some time".
Afterwards, Charles was reportedly still open to hearing from Harry, his "dear boy". There was an open invite for the pair to meet whenever he's in the UK, it has been reported, with plans for father and son to talk again soon. But just weeks later, Harry and Meghan's relationship with their royal relatives was put under the microscope yet again due to the release of the controversial book Endgame by Omid Scobie, which reignited a royal race row.
Prince William
However, one royal it seems Harry may have no way back with is his older brother Prince William. The siblings have had a very fraught relationship in recent times, with Harry reflecting that he and William were on 'different paths' during his bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
But their relationship worsened following the death of the late Queen after the accusations Harry publicly levelled at his brother in double tell-alls: his memoir, Spare, and his Netflix documentary. In his autobiography, released just months after the former monarch died, Harry accused William of physically attacking him and pushing him into a dog bowl in a row over Meghan.
Harry and Meghan, in their Netflix series two months after the Queen’s death, claimed Kensington Palace lied to protect William when it issued a statement denying a story he had bullied Harry out of the royal family. Harry also wrote of how Charles pleaded with his two sons during a tense meeting at Windsor just after the funeral of Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, saying: “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery”.
When it came to marking the first anniversary of the late Queen's death, both brothers were in the UK as Harry made the trip across the Atlantic to his home in California to attend a charity awards ceremony. However, he did not meet up with - and paid his respects to his grandmother alone at Windsor Castle.
Royal expert Jennie Bond previously told The Sun: "Deep down, I’m sure William still loves Harry, but I don’t think he can see a way out of the rift that has opened between them. I think William has closed his mind to the prospect of reconciliation with Harry, and I can’t see a time when Meghan would be welcomed back into the bosom of the family - or a time when she would ever want to be welcomed back. I doubt that William thinks about them for more than a fleeting moment - and then he probably tries to blank out those thoughts."
Princess of Wales
But it's not just William, who Harry has aimed at, he has also dished on Kate and her widening rift with his wife Meghan.
Harry didn't spare Kate any criticism and revealed private details about a falling out between her and Meghan. He also described how Kate 'grimaced' when Meghan borrowed her lipgloss and how the women had a disagreement after the Duchess of Sussex said William's wife had "baby brain" after Prince Louis was born.
Jennie Bond says Kate was hurt and insulted by the attacks by Harry and Meghan - and it's unlikely their feud will be fixed any time soon. Speaking to OK!, she said: "When you come from a happy, united family – as Catherine does – it's incredibly hard to understand how people can become estranged.
"I think she believed the rift could be fixed and, after Prince Philip’s funeral, we saw her talking with Harry and obviously encouraging William to do the same. But we now know that it didn’t work. In fact, William and Harry had a blazing row right after the funeral. There comes a point when you just have to accept that happy families are not a game that everyone can play.
"Catherine has been hurt and insulted by things that Harry and Meghan have said, but she and William are a very strong team, and I suspect that, together, they’ve come to the conclusion that the rift with Harry cannot be fixed in the foreseeable future. They’ve closed their minds to that possibility and decided to get on with their lives."
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie
However, Harry remains "best of friends" with his cousins Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, it has been claimed. The prince is said to have always shared a close bond with the two York sisters - daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
Referring to Harry's relationship with Beatrice and Eugenie, an insider told PEOPLE: "They're still the best of friends and talk constantly." They added that tensions between the Sussexes and the Firm have been "really stressful" for the two sisters, and they find it "hard to watch" because they "see both sides".
Harry and Eugenie have always understood to be very close, playing together as children and forming a close bond. They are both younger siblings, while their mums were always close. Nigel Crawthorne, author of Prince Andrew, previously told Femail: "From an early age, Eugenie had to deal with the embarrassing headlines of both her father and mother. Harry had to deal with his share of headlines, too, and this bond between them was a great consolation for them."