As Prince Harry and Prince William are reunited in grief, how the Spencers may hold the key to mending the warring brothers' rift

As Prince Harry's relationship with the royal family has grown more strained in recent years, the Duke has managed maintain a close relationship elsewhere in the UK - with the Spencers. 

This week, Harry and his elder brother William were reunited for the first time in more than a year as they attended the funeral of their uncle, Robert Fellowes. 

Lord Fellowes, who died last month, was married to Lady Jane Spencer, sister of Harry and William's mother Diana, and was the late Queen's private secretary.

His Norfolk funeral marked the first time the royal siblings have been seen together in two years, since the Queen's funeral in 2022. They were last in the same room for King Charles's coronation in May last year. 

Significantly, it is Diana's family who have managed the impossible task of bringing the two brothers together again once more as they were reunited in grief. 

It seems that Diana's siblings - Lady Jane, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Earl Spencer - could even be the much hoped-for key to repair Harry and William's relationship. 

Harry himself has remained close to his mother's side of the family despite his move to the US in 2020, and the Spencers have supported the Duke on many occasions when senior royals have been absent. 

In May, Diana's brother Earl Spencer and her elder sister Lady Jane Fellowes rocked up to support Prince Harry at his Invictus Games anniversary service in St Paul's. 

King Charles, meanwhile, had been 'too busy' to attend, despite being just a stone's throw away entertaining thousands of guests at Buckingham Palace. 

The closeness between Prince Harry and his uncle Charles Spencer was obvious as they warmly embraced inside the Cathedral while the Duke beamed, clearly glad of the welcome amid his otherwise frosty reception. 

The presence of the Spencers at the event was just one example of the support they've offered him many times since moving to the US - with his aunts among the few of Harry's family members to have attended Princess Lilibet's christening. 

They were also significantly been centre-stage at Archie's christening in 2019, joining Harry and Meghan, Charles, Camilla, William, Kate and Meghan's mother Doria Ragland for the official photographs. 

Meanwhile Harry gave 'stand-out thanks' to Lady Jane, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Earl Spencer at the end of his tell-all memoir Spare, despite no mentions of his late grandmother the Queen, King Charles or his brother the Prince of Wales. 

Diana's older sister Lady Jane gave a reading from the Song of Solomon at Harry and Meghan's wedding at St George's Chapel, Windsor, in 2018. 

She was also one of the first to be invited to meet the couple's child, Archie, even ahead of Prince William.  

Though Earl Spencer himself has a bitter feud with the royals, he in many ways acted as an honorary godfather to the brothers after Princess Diana's death in 1997.

He infamously took swipes at the media and the royals for how his sister was treated at Diana's funeral, while making a public pledge to protect princes William and Harry. 

'We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair,' he said.

'We, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.

'We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will always respect and encourage them in their royal role but we, like you, recognise the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I know you would have expected nothing less from us.'

William too seems to have stayed close to the Spencers despite their show of support for his estranged brother. 

The Spencer sisters were invited by both princes to attend the unveiling of a statue of Princess Diana in 2021, with Lady Jane and Lady Sarah embracing both William and Harry.  

Both brothers have clearly seen Earl Spencer as a figure of influence for many years, with William calling on him once before to aid his relationship with Harry. 

In 2020, an explosive new book by royal historian Robert Lacey claimed that Harry had asked Earl Spencer to step in and stop Harry rushing into marriage with Meghan Markle - although his pleas weren't listened to. 

Prior to his wedding, Harry made sure he introduced Meghan to both his mother's sisters and followed up by making a point of saying during an interview to mark his engagement how important both Lady Jane and Sarah were to him.

It is clear he made his feelings plain to Meghan, who said before their wedding: 'I think in being able to meet his aunts, I'm able to, in some way, know a part of her (Diana) through them and of course through him. And it's - it's incredibly special.’

Another sign of the esteem in which Harry holds his aunts came in the official announcement of Archie's birth, which noted how, alongside the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Lady Jane Fellowes, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Earl Spencer were 'delighted' by the news.

Earl Spencer has continued to speak out against the royal family in the years following her death and has claimed he was lied to about his sister's funeral procession.

In 2017, he claimed he had been told by royal officials that his nephews wanted to walk behind Diana's coffin in the funeral procession, after he had raised concerns about it.

Describing the moment as the 'most horrifying half hour of my life', he revealed he still has nightmares about the 'harrowing' experience.

However he acknowledged that the walk would have been 'a million times worse' for William and Harry.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today Programme, he slammed the decision for the boys to follow the coffin as a 'very bizarre and cruel thing'.

Neither Earl Spencer, nor his sisters, were invited to King Charles's Coronation last May, in a snub for the uncle of the King's sons. 

The two brothers have barely spoken to each other since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the UK for the US and abandoned royal duties.

The rift was exacerbated by the publication of Harry's memoir Spare in January last year that levelled accusations against his family.

Harry claimed that William, 42, branded Meghan 'difficult', 'rude' and 'abrasive', and even accused him of pushing him into a dog bowl.

The Duke last visited the UK in May to attend a service at St Paul's Cathedral marking ten years of the Invictus Games, the sports event he helped to launch for injured soldiers.

He previously returned to the UK in February to see his father, King Charles III, after he revealed his ongoing battle with an unspecified form of cancer.

However, he did not visit his father while back in London - despite being a stone's throw from the royal residences in the capital.

Since then, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have embarked on a pair of pseudo-royal tours, visiting Nigeria in May and Colombia earlier this month.

Harry also reached out to William after his wife Kate Middleton's shock cancer diagnosis earlier in the year.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were understood to have made contact with the Prince and Princess of Wales 'privately'.

It was also claimed in the United States that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex only learnt about Kate's condition at the same time the world heard the news.

Sources told the New York Post that the couple had 'no idea' about Kate's illness.

Hours after the news, the couple released a short statement wishing the Princess of Wales and her family 'health and healing'.

The couple said they hoped Kate and her family would be 'able to do so privately and in peace'.

This week, however, Prince William and Harry both attended the funeral of their uncle, Robert Fellowes. 

Locals in Snettisham, Norfolk said pair were both in attendance at a service for Lord Fellowes, who died last month, after Harry made a secret dash from LA to the UK. 

The Duke is believed to have flown from Los Angeles International Airport on August 27.

However, witnesses said they didn't see the warring brothers speak.

A local in the area told The Sun: 'I didn't know they were there. They arrived very discreetly.'

Another said: 'William and Harry were both there but we never saw them speak to each other and they were keeping their distance.'

They reportedly sat apart at the back of St Mary's Church in Snettisham where the service for Eton-educated Lord Fellowes took place.

Sources spoke of how the pair arrived 'very discreetly' and that you wouldn't have known they were there.