Royal Heartbreak: Prince William and Prince Harry's Uncle Dead at Age 82

Prince William and Prince Harry are dealing with the recent death of their uncle Lord Robert Fellowes, who passed away on Monday, July 29.

Lord Fellowes worked for Queen Elizabeth and was married to Princess Diana's sister Jane Fellowes for 40 years.

Robert worked as a private secretary for Elizabeth during one of the more troubling periods for the royal family, as he assisted The Crown during annus horribilis in 1992 when King Charles and Diana's marriage, in addition to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's relationship unraveled. Aside from helping The Firm navigate a series of scandals, Robert was part of a small group of advisors who assisted the monarchy after the tragic 1997 passing of his sister-in-law, the former Princess of Wales

"I was deeply fond of her. She was a very good person. She found it difficult in life to find happiness, and I'm sad for people who have that situation," Robert said.

Throughout William and Harry's childhoods, Jane spent quality time with her nephews.

"Their friends were the children of their father's circle," Tina Brown wrote in The Palace Papers. "It was Diana's more sober-sided sister, don't-rock-the-boat Jane, who became a steady presence in the boys' lives, hosting them on country weekends in Norfolk with their cousins.”

"Thanks to her marriage to Robert Fellowes, who stayed a lifelong loyalist to the Queen after he retired as her private secretary, she was almost a Windsor by osmosis," Brown added.

Jane continues to keep a close relationship with William and Harry, as she attended Princess Lilibet's christening in California and the Duke of Sussex's recent Invictus Games 10-year anniversary gathering in London.

Although Jane continues to be in William and Harry's lives, the relationship between the two brothers declined after the release of Spare. OK! previously reported Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, believes the siblings won't reunite anytime soon.

“There is no room for any reconciliation now, they just don't trust him. He's worn away all the trust that they had in him," Burrell said on behalf of Slingo. "They can't invite him back into the fold because they know that when he gets back to America, he'll tell Meghan everything and then the rest of the world will know exactly what's happening."

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In Spare, Harry painted the Prince of Wales as ill-tempered, and they haven't been photographed in the same room since Charles' 2023 coronation.

"I think it’s very sad, as he's done it to himself. William doesn't trust him and we will not see him let back into his environment. Whilst they don't trust him, they can't invite him back," he added. "I just think it's a sad situation, but how do you resolve it? There's always somebody in a family to upset the family unit and somebody that you don't trust that you don't want to allow back in and Harry, is that person. It’s very sad. If his mother was alive, it just would not be happening."