Prince William mentioned Prince Harry publicly for the first time in years

And while the two men have breathed the same air over the years since then, most recently attending their uncle’s funeral in September where they were in the same church but apparently ignored each other, there’s been a marked imbalance in how willing they are to actually say the other’s name in public.

Harry, of course, used up a good chunk of his 400-page memoir painting a not-very-flattering portrait of his brother “Willy,” prone to rages and not particularly sensitive to the plight of his Second Son sibling.

William, on the other hand, literally hasn’t said Harry’s name in public in years. He certainly hasn’t ever commented on any of his brother’s allegations — not even the one mentioned above, where he was so “piping hot” with anger over reports Meghan was her bullying her staff that he shoved Harry so hard he fell onto a dog bowl and broke it — and, along with the rest of the Royal Family, seems to have chosen silence (icy or dignified, depending on your perspective) when it comes to Harry.

That is, until a clip released today ahead of a documentary about William’s work to end homelessness that’s airing in the U.K. later this week.

Speaking over an old photograph that shows Diana and her two sons visiting The Passage, a London charity that supports those without a home, the future king tells the story of where his own passion for this cause came from.

“My mother took me to The Passage. She took Harry and I both there. I must have been about 11, I think probably at the time, maybe 10. I’d never been to anything like that before, and I was a bit anxious as to what to expect,” William recalls. “My mother went about her usual part of making everyone feel relaxed and having a laugh and joking with everyone. I remember at the time kind of thinking, ‘Well, if everyone’s not got a home, they’re all going to be really sad’. But it was incredible how happy an environment it was.”

The mention of Harry is very brief, but is it the tiniest shoot of what could one day be an olive branch? We simply can’t know, especially not knowing any of the real human backdrop to this very public family drama. (And whatever reckoning we may yet see, it will likely never include a tell-all confession from William.)

On the one hand, you could see it as William slowly rewriting Harry into the family’s story, moving closer to reintegrating him into the fold by acknowledging their shared history. His mention of their mother — who in the past has sometimes seemed like a lever for public approbation that they tussle over ownership of — could also be read as an invitation to find common ground over the memory of a person they both loved.

It’s particularly compelling when you pair it with two things: William’s official social media accounts wished Harry a happy birthday back in September, and the (thus far unsubstantiated) claims that the younger Windsor is making moves to mend fences with his family. See: The story that Meghan and Harry have bought a house in Portugal in the same community as Eugenie, allegedly to have a European base that makes it easier to visit England.

On the other hand, William might simply be stating facts. Harry was in those pictures, he was there on that visit. In fact, given that photographic evidence of his presence was there on screen, it would be weird for him not to acknowledge it, particularly given how much scrutiny there is on these two men’s private relationship.

In all likelihood, however, it’s just not that deep. As with so many royal matters, he would damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. Either way, Harry was going to be part of this story, so getting it out front, in a clip teasing the documentary, may have been a strategic way of clearing the decks for when the documentary actually airs, and William’s work to end homelessness can take the spotlight without having to share it with family drama.

You have to give him credit for trying, at least.