Prince William’s Last Working Trip to South Africa Was with Prince Harry

• Prince William will step out in South Africa next week for the 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony
• William’s last work trip to South Africa was with his brother Prince Harry in 2010
• A royal source said the rift between the brothers is “very bad” but not “irreparable”

Prince William is preparing for a major trip to South Africa for the 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony — and his most recent official trip there was with his brother, Prince Harry.

Though the relationship between the Prince of Wales, 42, and the Duke of Sussex, 40, remains strained amid an ongoing rift, King Charles‘ sons traveled to Africa in June 2010 in a trip that was significant, as it marked their first joint overseas tour. At the time, Prince William was 27 and Prince Harry was 25, and the brothers spent six days on the go in Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa.

While William and Harry have both returned to Africa in official capacities since, the June 2010 tour was special because they used the opportunity to highlight charities they backed there, “and to show one another the work each organization has achieved,” Hello! reported at the time. 

The princes traveled to South Africa at the invitation of the Football Association (FA), soccer’s governing body in England, to support its bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Prince William was then president (and is now patron) of the FA, and the royal brothers got to watch a match between Algeria and England during their time in Cape Town. 

The overarching theme of the brothers’ larger visit was to support disadvantaged young people and sustainable development, a statement said at the time, and the trip spotlighted some of their individual patronages — Tusk Trust for Prince William and Sentebale for Prince Harry — in Botswana and Lesotho.

The princes seemed to be at ease in one another’s company in pictures captured during the trip, from horseback riding in the countryside to playing soccer with children, meeting a friendly python, having a laugh with David Beckham at a FIFA reception and more.

Catching up to the present, it’s widely reported that the tension between the brothers began in 2016 after William expressed concerns about how quickly Harry was moving in his romance with Meghan Markle, whom he married in 2018. In 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their royal roles and relocated to her home state of California.

The couple remains based there today with their children, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, while Prince William and Kate Middleton are raising their kids, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, in Windsor. 

Prince William and Prince Harry last crossed paths in August at the memorial service in Norfolk for their late uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes. However, they reportedly did not interact with one another at the intimate church service.

Sources previously told PEOPLE that Harry’s attempts to connect with William  through texts, calls and messages have been ignored. 

A royal insider said the rift with Prince William is “very bad,” but it’s not “irreparable.”

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Next week, Prince William will step out in Cape Town, South Africa for the fourth cycle of the Earthshot Prize Awards. The heir to the throne launched the contest in 2020 to inspire impactful approaches to the world’s most urgent environmental challenges, with plans to award $1 million Earthshot Prizes in five flagship categories annually until 2030. 

Prince William will travel solo to Cape Town, as Princess Kate has not fully returned to work after announcing on Sept. 9 that she completed chemotherapy treatment. 

While Kate won’t be with him, traveling to Africa may bring back sentimental memories, as William proposed to her in Kenya in October 2010.