As provocations go, it’s hard to see a bigger one than Prince Harry announcing this week that he was making a trip to New York during the one week in the year when Prince William might have conceivably been in the city as well.
The estranged brothers no longer speak to each other, with William most recently ignoring a get-well-soon message sent by Harry to his wife, Kate, after she was diagnosed with cancer. William is particularly irritated by Harry’s continued insistence on calling his wife Kate, rather than her preferred moniker, Catherine, as The Daily Beast has exclusively reported.
So when Harry’s team announced Tuesday that he would be visiting the city, “during UN General Assembly High Level Week and Climate Week” (otherwise known as 22-29 September) royal observers were quick to note that Prince William’s big annual American event, a conference in support of his Earthshot Prize, which aims to find technological solutions to the climate crisis, takes place in the city in Climate Week as well.
Would the brothers be going toe to toe on the observation deck of the Empire State building? Or would they be meeting for cheesecake at Junior’s?
Sadly, for those hoping for a New York-based episode of the world’s longest-running soap opera, an official source has now confirmed to The Daily Beast that William, who has avoided all foreign travel (except a brief football-watching jaunt to Germany over the summer) since his wife was diagnosed with cancer, will not be attending the Earthshot Summit.
Harry’s team declined to comment beyond the statement issued Tuesday.
The Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York has been used in previous years to generate buzz for the prize by announcing a shortlist of finalists; the eventual five winners are given cool $1m dollars each to develop their ideas.
William did not attend in 2022 as the summit took place in the weeks after the death of the queen, but he was there in 2023 and there were hopes he would make attendance a regular part of his schedule.
Earlier this year, Kensington Palace told reporters not to expect William or Kate to undertake international travel while she recovered from abdominal surgery. That surgery led to the unexpected discovery of cancer.
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