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(NewsNation) — Reports swirled last week that Princess Catherine — otherwise known as Kate Middleton — had reached out to Prince Harry on his 40th birthday, and some even suggested Kate would meet him in private during Harry’s quick trip to London this week.
A lovely thought — but I’m told it’s all fantasy.
Kate Middleton no longer playing peacemaker: source
My impeccable palace source told me, “It’s simply not true. While Kate has played peacemaker with Harry and William in the past but not now (that was before Harry spilled tea on Kate alleging she incited him to wear a Nazi costume and was rude to his wife, Meghan Markle. Middleton was also furious when it was later alleged she and King Charles were the royal racists mentioned in Harry and Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview — allegations that only came out after his pal, Omid Scobie, released his book ‘Endgame’ which wasn’t edited properly in the Netherlands and revealed their names).”
FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry arrives in the gardens of Buckingham Palace in London, Jan. 16, 2020. Prince Harry has reached an out-of-court settlement with a tabloid newspaper publisher that invaded his privacy with phone hacking and other illegal snooping. Attorney David Sherborne said Friday that Mirror Group Newspapers had agreed to pay Harry’ “substantial” costs and damages and would make an interim payment of 400,000 pounds or $505,000. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) 
FILE – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters, July 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) 
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – AUGUST 15: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex speaks onstage during a forum about digital responsibility at EAN University during a visit around Colombia on August 15, 2024 in Bogota, Colombia. (Photo by Diego Cuevas/Getty Images) 
FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry leaves after attending an Invictus Games Foundation 10th Anniversary Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, on May 8, 2024. Prince Harry, actor Matt Damon, and World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres are set to speak at the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York on Sept. 23 and 24, the Clinton Foundation announced Thursday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) 
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attends The Invictus Games Foundation 10th Anniversary Service at St Paul’s Cathedral on May 8, 2024 in London 
FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, waves during the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix auto race at Circuit of the Americas, on Oct. 22, 2023, in Austin, Texas. Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed his is now a U.S. resident. Four years after Harry and his American wife, Meghan, decamped to a villa on the Southern California coast, a travel company he controls filed paperwork informing British authorities that he has moved and is now “usually resident” in the United States. (AP Photo/Nick Didlick, File) 
Prince Harry arrives at the High Court in London, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) 
FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex looks on as Britain’s King Charles III leaves Westminster Abbey after coronation in central London Saturday, May 6, 2023. Prince Harry has spoken to King Charles III about his cancer diagnosis and “will be traveling to the U.K. to see His Majesty in the coming days,” said the office of Harry and his wife, Meghan. (Ben Stansall/Pool photo via AP, File) 
FILE – Britain’s Prince William and Britain’s Prince Harry walk beside each other after viewing the floral tributes for the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Windsor Castle, in Windsor, England on Sept. 10, 2022. Prince Harry flew more than 5,000 miles to see his father after King Charles III was diagnosed with cancer. But he did not see his estranged brother, William, during a visit that lasted scarcely 24 hours. William, meanwhile, returned to public duties for the first time since his wife, Kate, was admitted to a London hospital Jan. 16 for abdominal surgery. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File) 
FILE – Prince Harry leaves the High Court after giving evidence in London, Wednesday, June 7, 2023. Prince Harry is seeking 320,000 pounds ($406,000) in his phone hacking lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers. The Duke of Sussex’s lawyer submitted the claim in a court document Friday, June 30, 2023, at the conclusion of the trial that began in early May. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File) 
FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry salutes media as he arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, on March 30, 2023. Prince Harry is expected to return to the U.K. next month to attend a charity awards ceremony on the eve of the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) 
FILE- Prince Harry, centre, and David Sherborne, Prince Harry’s lead lawyer, right, leave the High Court after giving evidence in London, Wednesday, June 7, 2023. A London judge has allowed Prince Harry’s lawsuit against the publisher of The Sun tabloid to go to trial on claims the newspaper used unlawful methods to gather information about him. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein,File) 
FILE – Prince Harry leaves the High Court after giving evidence in London, on June 7, 2023. Prince Harry won his phone hacking lawsuit Friday Dec. 15, 2023 against the publisher of the Daily Mirror and was awarded over 140,000 pounds ($180,000) in the first of his several lawsuits against the tabloids to go to trial. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
Prince Harry’s 40th birthday
While the Palace issued a statement on Harry’s birthday, my source said, “They often do this for major birthdays — for everyone. You’ll notice it wasn’t signed by Catherine, William, the King or the Queen (Camila). It was generic.”
I’m also told that the late Queen Elizabeth — who laid out instructions for Harry’s split with the royal family — would be “very disappointed in (her grandson)… he has disrespected her wishes over and over since she died and refuses to accept that he can’t have round the clock, immediate police protection paid for by the taxpayers any time he wants.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a reception for young people at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on February 13, 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Andrew Milligan – WPA Pool/Getty Images) 
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, participates in The Archewell Foundation Parents’ Summit “Mental Wellness in the Digital Age” as part of Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Festival on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) 
FILE – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex visit the track and field event at the Invictus Games in The Hague, Netherlands, Sunday, April 17, 2022. The production company founded by Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, are splitting ways with Spotify, Friday, June 16, 2023, less than a year after the debut of their podcast “Archetypes.”(AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File) 
FILE – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave after a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Friday, June 3, 2022. The Duke of Sussex is scheduled to testify in the High Court after his lawyer presents opening statements Monday, June 5, 2023 in his case alleging phone hacking. It’s the first of Harry’s several legal cases against the media to go to trial and one of three alleging tabloid publishers unlawfully snooped on him. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool, File) 
FILE – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 18, 2022. A spokesperson for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan says the couple were involved in a car chase while being followed by photographers. The couple’s office says the pair and Meghan’s mother were followed for more than two hours by a half-dozen vehicles after leaving a charity event in New York on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) 
FILE – Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, arrives at the Invictus Games venue in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, April 15, 2022. Meghan will be in New York Tuesday, May 16, 2023, along with Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown, to receive the Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision Award, as the nation’s oldest women’s foundation marks its 50th anniversary. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File) 
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, speak during the Global Citizen festival, Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah) 
FILE – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave after a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, on June 3, 2022. Meghan has said that “just by existing,” she and her husband Prince Harry had “upset the dynamic of the hierarchy” when they were in the U.K. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool) 
FILE – Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex, appears at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, on Sept. 23, 2021. The first podcast from Prince Harry and Meghan’s partnership with Spotify will focus on harmful labels and stereotypes applied to women. The “Archetypes” podcast will be hosted by Meghan and is expected to launch this summer. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) 
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry pose for pictures after visiting the observation desk in One World Trade in New York, Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) 
FILE – In this March 5, 2020, file photo, Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, arrive at the annual Endeavour Fund Awards in London. Meghan and Prince Harry’s second Netflix project will focus on a 12-year-old girl’s adventures in an animated series. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Productions announced Wednesday, July 14, 2021, that the working title “Pearl” will be developed for the streaming service. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) 
FILE – In this Thursday, March 17, 2016 file photo, actress Meghan Markle participates in AOL’s BUILD Speaker Series to discuss her role on the television show, “Suits”, in New York. (AP Photo) 
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, arrives at Variety’s Power of Women on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, at Mother Wolf in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) 
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, walk together after Harry slid down the track on a skeleton sled a second time while attending an Invictus Games training camp, in Whistler, British Columbia. Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP) 
Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s wife, speaks during a forum on Afro women and power alongside Colombian Vice President Francia Marquez in Cali, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia) 
FILE – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walk down the steps after their wedding at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in Windsor, near London, England, Saturday, May 19, 2018. Britain’s monarchy is bracing for more bombshells to be lobbed over the palace gates Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022 as Netflix releases the first three episodes of a series that promises to tell the “full truth” about Prince Harry and Meghan’s estrangement from the royal family. (Ben Birchhall/pool photo via AP, file)
‘The problem is Meghan’ Markle
But while Harry definitely wants to repair relations with his family, my source said, “The problem is Meghan. Her motivation is money and prestige. Look how she insists on using her Duchess title on her stationery — and insisted on Prince and Princess for her children. It’s complete hypocrisy. To say you want out of the family but insist on keeping your titles? It’s all about commercialism and money for her.”
Other members of the royal family — like Princess Anne’s daughter Zara refused titles for themselves and their children… and still work for “The Firm.”
“It’s all preposterous. Some day Harry may wake up and come around — but he’s not at that point yet.”
