Prince William’s ‘real best man’ Thomas van Straubenzee and his brother Charlie, Prince Harry’s messenger, ‘could achieve the most extraordinary feat if they join forces to bring the warring Windsors back together’, royal expert claims

Time apart isn’t healing Prince William and Prince Harry‘s deeply fractured relationship — as they’re still at odds six years after Megxit — but could Straubenzee’s brothers do it too?

Thomas, 44, is part of North Yorkshire’s ‘landed gentry’ and has been the future king’s best friend for more than 30 years, while Charlie, 38, has been by Prince Harry’s side everywhere from rugby matches to the altar.

As he returns to his old life after six years in Montecito, Harry will undoubtedly turn to the investment banker who, along with Thomas, may be uniquely positioned to bridge the distance between the warring princes.

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told the Daily Mail that while it was widely speculated that the best man for the job was their former private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the aide ‘belongs to a different generation’.

The ‘obvious mediators’ are Thomas and Charlie, whose friendship dates back to their days at Ludgrove Prep School and spans bachelorhood, marriage and the birth of their children.

“The Van Straubenzee brothers could pull off the most extraordinary feat if they joined forces to bring William and Harry together,” Fitzwilliams said.

While William left Highgrove House when the Duke and Duchess visited the King for tea last month, he is likely to have a harder time avoiding his younger brother now that Harry has returned to Britain for an ‘extended stay’ and they have several mutual friends.

“What makes the brothers ideal is that, in addition to being close to both of them, Thomas is especially close to William and Charlie is especially close to Harry,” he explained.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and their children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, arrived back in Britain this week after six years in the US.

The Sussexes – who are also believed to be taking their dogs Mia and Pula across the Atlantic – will live in a non-royal residence outside London. Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet are enrolled in British schools, ready to start next week.

Harry and Meghan have remained tight-lipped about their decision to move back to Britain. But the Duke is expected to reunite with close friends including the Duke of Westminster Hugh Grosvenor, former nightclub owner Guy Pelly and royal equerry Mark Dyer.

However, the group also has strong ties to William; Hugh is the godfather to the Prince of Wales’s eldest son George, while former Welsh Guards officer Mark – affectionately known as Harry’s ‘second father’ – was a steadying influence during William’s early years.

Guy is godfather to the youngest child from Wales, Prince Louis. He has a close friendship with William and even organized his bachelor party.

Each of them has been suggested as a potential mediator for William and Harry, but none are as strong as Thomas and Charlie van Straubenzees – especially when they work together.

The van Straubenzees are often described as a second family to William and Harry.

The boys’ parents, Claire and Alex, gave the princes refuge during the bitter split between Charles and Diana, which was dubbed the ‘War of the Waleses’. Harry and William also regularly went on holiday to Cornwall in the ‘vans’ every summer.

In Spare, Prince Harry describes how Thomas acted as William’s ‘real best man’ at his wedding to Kate in 2011, delivering the traditional speech alongside friend James Meade.

Thomas is also godfather to Princess Charlotte, and William is godfather to his daughter Mary, whom he had with his second wife, Lucy Lanigan-O’Keeffe.

Both brothers were ushers at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, where Charlie gave a rousing speech during the reception dedicated to “our strawberry blonde prince.”

In an emotional moment, Charlie told the wedding party that “Diana would be proud and happy” to see her son has found love with “such a wonderful woman,” according to biographer Omid Scobie’s book about the Sussexes, Finding Freedom.

Harry is godfather to Charlie’s four-year-old daughter Clover and Charlie is in turn godfather to Prince Archie, who will soon go to school in Britain with his younger sister, Princess Lilibet.

They have kept in touch despite Harry’s move to Montecito, with Charlie traveling to the United States to visit the royal family in May 2022.

The pair were spotted cycling around the Californian neighborhood, with the prince appearing happy and relaxed in the company of one of his closest confidantes.

Although Thomas is considered William’s ‘best friend’, the Straubenzee eldest is likely to have divided loyalties now that Harry is back in Britain.

He and the Duke were close in the 2010s, and when Thomas was robbed in Stockwell, south London, in 2012, it was Harry he was on the phone to when his Nokia phone was snatched.

In 2014, Thomas was pictured alongside both Prince William and Harry after they played a polo match at the Coworth Park Polo Club in Ascot. The following year, Thomas accompanied Harry and his brother Charlie to a rugby match.

Harry also had a particularly close relationship with Thomas and Charlie’s brother Henry van Straubenzee, who became the royal family’s best friend during their time in Ludgrove.

“Skinny, without muscles and with hair that permanently stood on end, Henners was all heart,” he wrote lovingly of Henry in his memoir Spare. “Every time he smiled, people melted.”

The Duke said in his book that Henry was the only boy who asked him about his mother, Princess Diana, after she died in 1997. Tragically, he himself died in a car accident at the age of 18.

In Spare, Harry described how the news of Henry’s death had terrible resonance when his father, then Prince Charles, told him that his mother, the late Princess of Wales, had died.

The Duke noted that Henry was not wearing a seatbelt when he died ‘just like mum’.

In what is seen as a testament to the loyalty and kinship that both Harry and William feel towards the van Straubenzee family, the only protection they shared was that of the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund until it closed two years ago.

In December 2022, despite their estrangement, the princes signed a joint letter to mark the twentieth anniversary of Henry’s death.

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams noted how Prince William ‘personally arranged’ to award an MBE to Claire van Straubenzee for her services to children’s education in Uganda at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle two years ago.

Since Thomas and Charlie have been William and Harry’s closest confidantes for more than three decades, the royal expert suggested they had a special perspective on the princes’ relationship.

If they decided to do so, they could ‘achieve the most extraordinary feat’ and reunite the brothers after years of feuding, although Mr Fitzwilliams warned that ‘it certainly won’t be easy’.

The brothers have not spoken since Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in September 2022, and it is believed there has not been any contact for more than two and a half years.

But Harry told the BBC last year that he wanted to change that, saying: “There’s no point in continuing to fight.”

Friends of the Waleses are said to have claimed the couple cannot forgive a series of hugely damaging attacks from the Sussexes after ‘Megxit’ in 2020, including a claim in Harry’s memoir Spare that William left him with visible ‘scrapes and bruises’ after they had an alleged fight.

Those hoping for a reconciliation are pinning their hopes on a major black-tie event on September 18 being organized by The Diana Award, a charity where both William and Harry serve as patrons.

The charity, which honors young people who make a difference to the lives of others, is a crucial organization for the princes as it has played a key role in keeping their mother’s memory alive.

Next month’s event at the OWO Hotel in central London marks the start of the build-up to the 30th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death next summer.

In recent years, William and Harry have taken turns taking part in the charity events. The MoS understands that William will not currently be attending next month’s event and it is not known whether the Sussexes will attend.