With the appointment of Jason Knauf as chief executive of Earthshot Prize, Prince William seems to have poured cold water on the hopes of reconciliation with his younger brother, Prince Harry.
The Prince of Wales has appointed the former CEO of The Royal Foundation and ex-communications secretary at Kensington Palace as chief executive of his Earthshot Prize.
Knauf served as the communications secretary for Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry at Kensington Palace.
When Meghan joined the royal family after her engagement to Harry in 2017, Knauf’s responsibilities expanded to include managing her communications as well.
He played a significant role in the rift that erupted between Prince Harry and his elder brother.
Knauf had deposed against Meghan Markle in a lawsuit while he was still working for Prince William and Kate Middleton.
He sent an email to Simon Case, then Prince William’s private secretary, raising concerns about Meghan’s behavior toward staff.
In this email, Knauf alleged that Meghan had bullied two personal assistants, driving them out of the household, and was undermining the confidence of a third staff member.
This email became a flashpoint in the escalating rift between the brothers.
Meghan’s team strongly denied these allegations, framing them as part of a calculated smear campaign by the palace, while Harry described the leak’s impact as leaving Meghan in tears, accusing the institution of "gaslighting" them.
Knauf’s role deepened the divide further during Meghan’s 2021 privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, the publishers of the Mail on Sunday, over the publication of a private letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle.
As the case moved to the Court of Appeal, Knauf provided a witness statement that contradicted Meghan’s earlier claims.
He revealed that Meghan had consulted him on the letter’s draft, suggesting she wrote it with an awareness it might leak, a detail used by the newspaper to argue it wasn’t truly private.
In their Netflix documentary, Harry and Meghan, expressed shock and betrayal over this, with their lawyer Jenny Afia asserting that Knauf’s statement could only have been authorized by his boss.
Harry called it a sign of the "symbiotic relationship" between the royal institution and the press, driving him to leave the UK. Knauf’s representatives countered that he was asked to provide evidence by both sides and remained neutral, acting on legal advice.
When William and Harry’s households split in 2019, Knauf chose to stay with William and Kate, becoming their senior adviser and later CEO of their Royal Foundation until 2021.