The ITV golden boy appeared to have a glowing rapport with Prince William and Prince Harry.
Prince William’s fall-out with Tom Bradby
Unfortunately for Bradby, this all came crashing down in 2019. The journalist famously made a damning move that would result in the demise of his bond with Wills.
Bradby’s friendship with the then Wales brothers was originally struck up in the early 2000s. At the time, Tom was new to the royal beat.
He was invited to lunch by Mark Dyer, then Harry’s private secretary, and he quickly became the favoured journalist amongst both Harry and Wills’ press teams.
The two princes were said to have grown to trust Bradby. This was confirmed when in 2004, he was invited to film Harry in southern Africa on his gap year.
MailOnline reports that Bradby even had Prince William’s private mobile number.
Tom Bradby’s involvement with Prince Harry phone-hacking
Bradby’s close relationship with Harry also resulted in exposing a phone-hacking scandal involving the now Duke of Sussex.
A voicemail left by the journalist for the prince, where he offered to lend him editing equipment in 2005, turned up in a tabloid.
Evidently, bolstering the exposure of the phone-hacking scandal.
William already trusted Bradby so strongly, he was sure that the journalist hadn’t leaked his brother’s conversation.
Reports explain that Bradby suggested the royal phone might have been hacked. He even encouraged the Palace to go to the police.
Later in their friendship, Tom Bradby was promoted to ITV News’s political editor. Despite moving up in the world of journalism, his friendship with the royals remained solid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xha3EPAbnzY ” data-image-caption=”Tom Bradby’s friendship with William came crashing down in 2019 (Credit: Youtube / ITV News)
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Tom Bradby’s close bond with Wills and Harry
William even chose Bradby to interview him and Kate after they announced their engagement in 2010. An invitation to their fairytale wedding at Westminster Abbey followed a year later.
In 2018, Harry and Meghan extended their own wedding invite to Bradby.
In an article penned shortly after the wedding, the journalist praised the couple as “the Royal Family’s natural rock stars”.
Unfortunately, the souring of his relationship with William swiftly followed, when Bradby interview Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in South Africa, in 2019.
Prince Harry and Meghan interview that triggered Megxit
This interview has even been dubbed as the catalyst that resulted in Harry and Meghan’s departure from the royal fold.
In the interview, Bradby famously asked Meghan how she was.
In response this to this, Meghan thanked Bradby for asking, noting she hadn’t been asked that since joining the royals.
It was here that Harry also admitted that he and his brother were “on different paths at the moment” – undoubtedly blindsiding William.
https://youtu.be/uBdqwIcTv4w?feature=shared ” data-image-caption=”Tom interviewed Meghan in 2019 where the now duchess shed light on her experience with the press (Credit: Youtube / ITV)
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The Mail revealed that this severely damaged William’s bond with Bradby, with Wills and his team reportedly feeling that Bradby had taken advantage of Harry’s “clear vulnerability”.
Amid the rocky aftermath, Bradby even admitted to being “caught in the middle” of the brothers and called it “a deeply uncomfortable place to be”.
Tom Bradby’s support of ‘team Harry’
“William didn’t know what his brother would say until he watched it on the TV at the same time as everyone else,” a source claimed.
A source also 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.”
Now, it seems, Bradby is very much on team Harry.
Since the break down of his friendship with Wills, Bradby has gone on to describe Kate and William as “insufficiently welcoming… Quite early on they decided, ‘Right, we are going to tell these people their place and we are going to push them away’,” toward Harry and Meghan.
He also dubbed Harry and Meghan’s move away from The Firm as “Harry and Meghan’s escape from the poisonous palace.”
