Prince William ended his long friendship with ITV’s Tom Bradby after feeling ‘betrayed’ by the presenter taking part in a documentary with Harry and Meghan, a new book claims.
The Prince of Wales had appeared close to the former royal correspondent and political editor for the channel – granting him the first interview alongside Kate Middleton following the couple’s engagement in 2010.
William is now said to have felt that was a ‘betrayal’ and cut off ties with Bradby, amid the ‘Megxit’ dispute that has since seen Harry and Meghan quit the UK for the USA.
The claims are made in a new book by royal reporter Russell Myers, called William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story.
An ITV documentary followed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they visited southern Africa in October 2019, including Bradby interviewing them both.
Three months later, the pair announced in January 2020 they would be giving up royal duties and moving to the US, where they now live in Montecito, California.
The interviews included Meghan thanking Bradby for asking if she was OK – while Harry admitted he and his brother were ‘on different paths at the moment’.
ITV presenter Tom Bradby (left) interviewed the Duke of Sussex (right) during their 2019 trip to southern Africa, for the documentary Harry And Meghan: An African Journey
Prince William, pictured on February 11 during a visit to Saudi Arabia, has cut off friendship with Tom Bradby following the 2019 documentary involving his brother, as told in a new book
It was seen as the first time Harry publicly confirmed a rift between him and his elder brother – talking about how they had what he called ‘good days’ and ‘bad days’.
As the Daily Mail revealed back then, William and royal advisors felt Bradby had taken advantage of Harry’s ‘clear vulnerability’.
A source told the Daily Mail at the time: ‘The friendship between William and Tom is over. The Prince feels let down by Bradby and the way he has acted over the past few months.
‘William is a sensitive soul and believes it’s in times of crisis when you find out who your true friends are. It would be fair to say Bradby hasn’t been one of them.’
In the fallout, Bradby confessed to feeling ‘caught in the middle’ of the brothers – calling it ‘a deeply uncomfortable place to be’.
The new book suggests William believed Bradby had ‘crossed a line’ by taking part in the Sussexes’ October 2019 programme, the Mirror has now reported.
William, then the Duke of Cambridge, felt ‘betrayed and severely let down’, with a source quoted as saying: ‘He considered Tom a friend, they had always got on and Harry was close to him too, but [William] never thought [Bradby] would take a side like he did.
‘As far as [William] was concerned, the friendship was over there and then.’
In 2019 Tom Bradby carried out interviews with Harry and Meghan in South Africa, in which they described their struggles within the Royal Family
Tensions grew after Bradby conducted interviews with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for coverage of their tour of southern Africa in 2019, it has been claimed
The previously amicable terms on which the three interacted began after Bradby, making his name as an acclaimed reporter in the early 1990s, was invited to lunch by Mark Dyer, then Harry’s private secretary.
The ITV man swiftly became a favoured journalist amongst the Press pack by both brothers William and Harry.
They came to trust Bradby who in 2004 was invited to film Harry in southern Africa during his gap year and also had William’s private mobile number.
It was a voicemail he left for William offering to lend him editing equipment in 2005 – the details of which turned up in a tabloid story – that would set off the phone-hacking scandal, ultimately revealing the behaviour of News Of The World reporters.
William trusted Bradby, now 59, so much that when they discussed a project over the phone and the contents of their conversation later appeared in a newspaper, he knew Bradby would not have leaked them.
Instead Bradby suggested the royal phone might have been hacked and encouraged Buckingham Palace to go to police.
While Bradby was later promoted to be ITV News’s political editor, the friendship and trust continued.
When announcing his engagement to Catherine in 2010, William chose Bradby to interview them – and Bradby and his wife Claudia attended the wedding the following year.
Tom Bradby climbed the ranks at ITV after joining their trainee scheme in 1990
Tom Bradby and his wife Claudia attend Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May 2018 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor
The couple were also there when Harry and Meghan wed at Windsor Castle in May 2018.
In an article written soon after that marriage, Bradby praised the couple as ‘the Royal Family’s natural rock stars’.
He then he presented the documentary covering the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s trip to southern Africa the following year – ahead of the so-called ‘Megxit’ in January 2020, with Harry and Meghan quitting frontline royal duties and moving to the US.
And Harry took part in a 90-minute interview with Bradby in January 2023 promoting his memoir Spare.
During that conversation, the Duke of Sussex accused his family of being ‘complicit’ in the ‘pain and suffering’ inflicted on his wife and compared them to ‘abusers’.
He suggested they helped to ‘trash’ the reputations of him and Meghan, forcing them to move to California – saying relatives had ‘shown no willingness to reconcile’.
While he accused his family of ‘getting in bed with the devil’, he added they were not racist but believed them guilty of ‘unconscious bias’.
And both Harry and Meghan reflected on the aftermath of the 2019 ITV programme in July 2022, in episode four of their own Netflix series Harry & Meghan.
Bradby scooped his rivals to the first interview with Prince William and Kate Middleton after the newly engaged couple asked ‘specifically’ for him in 2011
Bradby later interviewed Prince Harry when the Duke of Sussex was promoting his tell-all memoir Spare in January 2023
The Duke of Sussex described the response at the time as ‘bonkers’, adding: ‘When you expect support from the people closest, we got the opposite.’
The Duchess of Sussex said: ‘There is only so much you can take on your own, so you end up saying, “Something has to change”.
‘It was a huge turning point. It was when we started having harder conversations about what needs to happen for us to be able to continue to make this work.’
Meghan also revealed she ‘didn’t know’ what Bradby was going to ask her before the cameras started rolling.
She said: ‘You could see I hadn’t touched up my make-up, I was just fried. I guess, because I was so exhausted, I was just really grateful that someone seemed to ask me something like I was a human being.’
Meghan described her astonishment at how quickly her comments spread, adding: ‘We got in the car, got on the flight with everybody and then, I had no idea that that was going to be the thing that was going to travel around the world.
‘That’s what spawned the #WeLoveYouMeghan. It hit a chord for everyone for something specific to them.’
ITV has been contacted for comment.
