Even before Prince Harry made a surprise visit to war-torn Ukraine Friday to pledge support for the country’s wounded veterans, he wrapped up a “quasi-royal” trip to London, where he put on a happy face to support causes he cares about, announced a $1.5 million donation to a children’s charity and had tea with his estranged father, King Charles III, for what could be the first step in a reconciliation with his family.

It wasn’t lost on royal observers that Harry’s whirlwind week, which included a playful, “high-gusto balloon sword fight” with a disabled 9-year-old girl at the WellChild Awards, overshadowed Prince William’s return to official engagements after a long summer vacation with his wife, Kate Middleton, and their three children, wrote famed editor and Princess Diana biographer Tina Brown. 

“At last, Prince Harry has got it right, which is bad news for the Prince of Wales,” Brown wrote on her Fresh Hell Substack earlier this week. “As Harry’s buoyant photo ops dueled with Prince William and Kate’s engagements for press coverage this week, you had to ask: Who would you rather hang with? The Tigger-like Duke of Sussex or sober, appropriate William and infinitely perfect Kate.”

Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales reacts as he meets people during his visit to new a mental health hub run by the Jac Lewis Foundation, at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, in Wales, on September 10, 2025. (Photo by Chris Jackson / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CHRIS JACKSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) 

Brown noted that Harry’s cheery demeanor is a reminder of the prince that Britains used to adore — before he and his American TV actress wife Meghan Markle decided they could become rich and powerful global influencers if they left the U.K. and sought their fame and fortune in America, while also trashing the royal institution and Harry’s family members in various venues. Harry subsequently spent the next five years damaging his public image by being the “ginger whinger,” “exuding choler and wrath” and “spouting therapeutic gibberish,” said Brown, the former editor at Vanity Fair, the Daily Beast and the New Yorker.

What Harry got right this past week, Brown said, is that he’s finally accepted that all royals have to do to win public enthusiasm is to “zip around the U.K. and smile.”

“After stewing for five years as prince without portfolio in Montecito, it feels as if Harry has got over Meghan’s vision of royalty as a version of global celebrity—and renewed his vows to the old royal MO of being a messenger of validation,” Brown said.

LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 8: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex speaks with 13-year-old Ansel Hayward (left), recipient of the Inspirational Young Person 12-14 award, at the annual WellChild Awards 2025, which celebrates the achievements and resilience of seriously ill youngsters and their families, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on September 8, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Aaron Chown – Pool/Getty Images) 

Harry and his P.R. team also reportedly agreed to not rush out and leak details of Harry’s meeting with this father to favorite reporters, given that he has a long way to go to prove to his father that he won’t go around anymore, spilling family secrets.

Harry had several high-profile engagements during his four-day London trip, while William’s first week back to work — after enjoying five family vacations over the past seven months — only involved two, Brown noted. One was William and Princess Charlotte’s father-daughter excursion to a Women’s Rugby World Cup pool match and the other was “a stroll” through the Natural History Museum’s new gardens with his wife.

To be fair to William, Harry’s busy week seems to be out of the norm for him, too, given that it’s generally unknown how the “prince without portfolio” spends his time in Montecito. His wife appears to be the family breadwinner, hustling to fund their lavish lifestyle with her Netflix show and by hawking her As Ever jam, wine and flower sprinkles.

William’s questionable work ethic actually stands in contrast to his father, according to Brown. Despite his ongoing battle with cancer, Charles carried out has official engagements on 175 days during the past 12 months. Brown also explained how William’s “work-shy” ways have long created tensions with his father. The spin from William and Kate’s camp is that they don’t want to be so consumed by work that they ignore precious family time with George, Charlotte and Louie. But William’s “parenting dedication” has always come across as “a tacit criticism of the king’s parental deficiencies,’ Brown said.

This is one reason that Charles may be keen to reconcile with Harry. In his own way, prodigal Harry has always been a more easy-going son than William. Brown said she was told that Charles is currently “less irritated” with Harry than with his older son and heir. So, it’s possible that Harry will get the reconciliation he wants with his father, even though it’s highly unlikely that there will be any reconciliation with William, Brown and other royal experts said.

Meanwhile, Harry was seen by some people as scoring  another P.R. win this week — and also at William’s expense. His announcement that he was donating $1.5 million to the Children in Need charity didn’t just steal more headlines from William, it also unleashed an “uneasy” question for his brother, according to Brown.

Newsweek and other outlets reported that the donation would come from Harry’s personal funds, not from his and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation. In the public mind, people may now ask what William does with the some $30 million a year he gets from the Duchy of Cornwall, the centuries-old royal estate that funds his annual income.

On the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential YouTube show, royal editors and columnists Richard Eden and Richard Kay tried to defend William and other royals over questions of whether they do more than just show up for photo ops and actually  reach into their own bank accounts to support good causes.

“It’s a huge amount, make no mistake,” Kay said about Harry’s donation. But he explained that it’s well known that royal family members have always been equally “generous” to charities. “The king, Prince William and other members of the royal have donated to charity for many, many years, but they do it quietly. They do it unobtrusively.”

Both Kay and Eden also took issue with Harry announcing the amount, with Eden accusing him of using it for his “P.R. push” in the U.K. “What people have said to me is that it was really crass to to announce the amount,” Eden said. “Sorry to be cynical but it’s almost like a sort of, you know, quite transparent bid for popularity.”

“I agree completely,” Kay said. “I thought it was extremely vulgar to specify the amount.”

Newsweek reported that the charity receiving the donation asked for Harry’s announcement to include the amount, presumably for the sake of transparency. Brown also pointed out that it’s a very “American” for major donors to specify the amounts of their contributions, especially if they can get maximum publicity from sharing the news.