Inside Prince Harry's Relationship With Peter Phillips

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The name Peter Phillips might not ring a bell to the general public. To royal pundits however, he is well known as the son of Princess Anne and her first husband, Mark Phillips. Peter isn't a working royal, despite his mother being King Charles III's sister, and that's because the Princess Royal willed it so. Despite being one of the most hardworking members of the royal family, Princess Anne didn't want her kids to have royal titles, as she did not wish for them to be limited by the firm.

The lack of a royal title has not affected Peter's spot in the line of succession, though. As of publication, he is 19th in line to the throne, but unless some unfathomable catastrophe strikes, he will never have to bear the burden of being a working royal. Of course, he grew up in the company of his cousins, Prince Harry and Prince William, and had a pretty close bond with them throughout his childhood. Peter is older than William and Harry and almost served as an older brother of sorts during their formative years. He was often seen accompanying Harry and William during royal events, such as Trooping the Colour and Christmas service.

Of course, a lot has changed since then. Peter and William still appear to be close, with their children being good friends. As for Harry, it might be safe to say that his relationship with his cousin has definitely changed since the days of their youth. With the runaway royal residing in the U.S. and Peter remaining in the U.K., things were bound to change, and they certainly have.

Prince Harry has become increasingly candid about how hard it was for him to lose his mother at a young age, and one person who was there to see the young prince's heartbreak firsthand was Peter Phillips. Princess Diana's tragic death rocked the world, but for her two young boys, life as they knew it changed irrevocably. In photographs taken in the aftermath of Diana's death, Prince Harry can be seen inspecting the flowers that mourners left in honor of the late princess, and Peter is notably present in those photographs.

Shortly after Diana's death, Peter and his sister, Zara Tindall, went to join Harry and William at Balmoral in a show of support. No doubt his presence was a comfort to the young princes. After all, Harry has since spoken openly about just how horrible the days, weeks, months, and years after Diana's death was, noting that King Charles III struggled to comfort his sons. "Pa didn't hug me. He wasn't great at showing emotions under normal circumstances," Harry wrote in his tell-all memoir, "Spare." He told Anderson Cooper during a 2023 "60 Minutes" interview, "Nothing was Okay," per CBS News.

Peter and Harry's childhood might have been marred by heartbreak, but they had some good times too. Speaking to "Good Morning Britain" in 2016, Peter recalled what his childhood with Harry and the other royals were like. "There was quite a gang of us growing up in that age, and it was a lot of fun," he mused. "We caused quite a bit of mayhem and chaos, but fortunately, we don't think we broke too much!"

When Peter Phillips got married for the first time in May 2008, Prince Harry was, of course, invited. Peter married Autumn Kelly in what was a grand royal wedding, and the couple even gave Hello! magazine exclusive access to the event (for the price of £500,000, of course). Harry attended the festivities with his girlfriend at the time, Chelsy Davy. Peter's nuptials marked Davy's first time attending a royal event.

Harry and Peter would go on to be spotted together at many events in the years that followed. In 2012, the two were seen cheering at the London Olympics, and 2019 saw them greeting each other with a hug when they supported runners at the London Marathon.

When Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018, Peter naturally received an invitation to the royal event of the year. He and Autumn were spotted among the guests at St. George's chapel on the big day. This was barely two years before the couple called it quits on their marriage. They announced their split in February 2020, barely a month after Harry and Meghan made their abrupt exit from the U.K. It might be safe to say that, with all the ongoing drama, not to mention Harry and William's feud, the Duke of Sussex likely wasn't as supportive of Peter during this difficult time as he could have been had the circumstances been different.

Prince Philip's death saw Prince Harry and Meghan Markle making a return trip to the U.K. after they left to make their home in the United States. With tensions between Harry and Prince William reportedly at an all time high, it wasn't much of a surprise to see Peter Phillips walking between the two brothers as they joined in the procession behind the Duke of Edinburgh's coffin. Peter seemed to be a buffer of sorts, keeping any feuding (and awkwardness) at bay. Naturally, royal pundits noticed, and there was plenty of chatter about it on the internet. "He was sort of put right in the middle of them as the older cousin, and that must have been a really difficult moment for him," Hello! royal editor Emily Nash told Page Six.

Peter was notably emotional that day, with video footage making the rounds of him seemingly crying after the funeral as he appeared to walk with the Earl of Snowdon, David Armstrong-Jones, the son of Princess Margaret. Harry and William weren't present, but the two seemed to momentarily put their differences aside that day. They were even spotted engaging in a civil chat after the funeral proceedings. Peter providing a buffer earlier in the day might have helped to cool tempers between the two.

Princess Anne's son told the BBC in an interview that the funeral was challenging for everyone, especially because of the strict COVID-19 protocols that were in place at the time. "Everybody saw the image of Her Majesty sitting alone," he said. Peter was also asked about Harry and Meghan, but declined to comment on the Sussexes. Him not defending or condemning Harry certainly spoke volumes.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's appearance at the 2022 Platinum Jubilee was awkward at best, but one member of the royal family made it a tad better. Peter Phillips came to Harry's rescue as he and Meghan attended the celebrations but received a notable cold shoulder from their family.

The strained relations between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal household was painfully obvious as they attended the Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral during the Platinum Jubilee. Prince William and Princess Catherine didn't even so much as look at the estranged couple, and even King Charles III appeared to give them a wide berth. Peter, however, made conversation with the two royals on the church steps after the service, as did his sister, Zara Tindall. It's not known if Peter spent any additional time with the Sussexes behind the scenes. Given their friendly encounter at the church, it might be safe to say that they would have if the opportunity arose.

The Platinum Jubilee was a special one for Peter, who debuted his new girlfriend, Lindsay Wallace, at some of the royal events that made up the weekend. It was over two years after his divorce from Autumn Kelly. Unfortunately, this relationship ended as well in 2024.

Peter Phillips has been there for Prince Harry during some of the hardest times of his life. The death of his mother, his grandfather, and ultimately, the heartbreaking death of Queen Elizabeth II. Harry and Meghan Markle returned to the U.K. once again for the queen's funeral, and, again, things between them and their family members were notably strained. Harry and William barely glanced at one another and stayed within arm's length of each other at all times. They notably walked together behind the queen's coffin this time around, unlike at Prince Philip's funeral, but Peter was notably close by once again, walking next to Harry.

While Peter would have felt the loss of Princess Diana differently from Harry and William, he was likely experiencing many of the same emotions as his cousins at the queen's funeral. She was his grandmother too, after all, and The Telegraph dubbed him the queen's "favorite grandson" back in 2016. Peter spoke fondly of his grandmother while she was alive, and in a column he penned for The Telegraph, he praised her leadership and the way she had led her people during her reign. "I've always been very close to my grandmother, and we speak often," he wrote. "She has been an inspirational person throughout my life."

While Peter Phillips and Prince Harry were clearly close growing up, and continued to be a constant in each other's lives as they got older, all of this seemingly changed as Harry left the royal family behind to start a new life with Meghan Markle and his two children in the United States.

Hello! royal editor Emily Nash told Page Six in 2026 that Harry and Peter had lost touch as the years went on. "What we were told was that Peter hadn't spoken to Harry for the last few years," she relayed. Nash noted that "a lot of water has gone under the bridge" since Harry and Peter last saw each other at the funerals of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II, and that the prince's tell-all Netflix documentary and memoir likely didn't help relations between the two cousins.

Harry admitted in his and Meghan's Netflix documentary that his inner circle had changed since he left the royal family. "I've lost a few friends in this process," Harry confessed. "I mean, I came [to California] because I was changed. I changed to the point that I'd outgrown my environment."

Given that Prince Harry and Peter Phillips reportedly haven't spoken much since the Duke of Sussex's departure from the U.K., it's not entirely surprising that Harry didn't receive an invitation to Peter's wedding in June 2026. The snub made headlines, with many seeing it as proof that their relationship had gone the way of Harry and Prince William's.

Some royal pundits were hopeful that Peter's nuptials to Harriet Sperling would see Harry and William finally reuniting. Alas, Harry was left off the guest list, along with his disgraced uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. Hello! royal editor Emily Nash told Page Six that she wasn't at all surprised that Peter decided not to invite Harry. "If that had been the case, that would have become the absolute focal point for Peter and Harriet's special day, and there have been enough distractions, I think, from the good things about the royal family over the past year," Nash opined.

Many other royal experts agreed. BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond told the Mirror that she believes Peter didn't want his new wife to feel sidelined at her own wedding by all the royal drama that would have likely followed with Harry's appearance. "I think Harry will understand, but he used to be close to his cousin, Peter, and it's only natural that he will feel rather excluded on such a big occasion," Bond conceded, adding that, at this point, Peter is likely more loyal to William than his renegade brother. Furthermore, neither Harry nor Peter's spokespeople wanted to comment on the wedding situation when asked by People.