Prince Harry was reportedly returning to California Wednesday, just 24 hours after flying all the way to London to have a brief visit with cancer-stricken King Charles III, which raised some people’s hopes that the rogue royal could begin to reconcile with his father or other members of the British royal family.
Other royal observers were less optimistic about reconciliations. There were reports that Harry’s visit with Charles lasted only 30 to 45 minutes, with a palace aide telling the Daily Mail that his 75-year-old father was “tired” from his cancer treatment. Another royal expert also said that Charles is probably still “very angry” with Harry.
The Daily Mail reported that the Duke of Sussex spent the night in a “luxury hotel,” instead of being invited to stay at a family residence. One family home that could have been open to Harry is Clarence House, Charles’ London residence, where the duke had his own room while growing up. But a former butler for the king told the New York Post that Harry may have opted to find a hotel room in a “desperate bid” to show that he’s “grown up enough” to pay his own way.
And, while the Daily Mail said that Harry “would have gladly accepted” a reunion with Prince William, sources told the Times and the BBC that the older brother wasn’t going to make any effort to see him.
BBC Royal Correspondent Daniela Relph said on Radio 4 about Harry and William: “It’s a sibling relationship that still looks incredibly broken. We don’t know if either side has reached out in any way, if there has been any attempt to find a truce. As things stand there doesn’t seem to be any sign of that.”
William, Charles’ heir to the throne, also is said to have his hands full this week and probably wasn’t inclined to schedule time to have a difficult meeting with his brother. Among other things, William returned to royal duties Wednesday after helping his wife, the Princess of Wales, settle in at home as she recovers from abdominal surgery. William also is expected to take on additional royal appearances on behalf of his father, who has been told to avoid public-facing duties as he undergoes cancer treatment.
But beyond that, William still feels deeply “wounded” by things Harry wrote about him in his memoir “Spare” and said about him in his Netflix documentary and in interviews, the Times reported. Harry’s criticisms of William also included hits against William’s wife, Kate Middleton, with whom Harry once was close. William believes that “trust, the basis of any relationship, has been utterly destroyed” when it comes to Harry, Daily Mail columnist Richard Kay wrote.
The Times agreed that the bitter rift between Harry and William shows “no signs of healing,” while the Daily Mail’s royal experts, Rebecca English and Richard Eden, suggested that Harry and his father also have a ways to go before they can heal their relationship.
Prior to Harry’s “dash” to the U.K. this week to see his father, after learning about his cancer diagnosis, the two men had barely spoken since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September 2022, according to The Telegraph. Harry also made only “the most fleeting of appearances” in London for Charles’ coronation in 2023.
English said that Charles probably is still “angry” at Harry for choices that he and his wife, Meghan Markle, made during and after their acrimonious departure from royal duties in 2020. English also noted that she’s seen many hostile online comments from the British public about Harry’s brief return to the U.K. this week.
“I do understand that because of what’s happened in recent years,” she said on a special edition of the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential show.
“I think the king is probably a more forgiving person than I think would be in that situation,” English continued. “I think it’s important to stress that this is his son at the end of the day, his flesh and blood. The one thing that everybody I’ve spoken to, who knows the king, has said is that he’s left the door open for Harry. He’s not running after him, and his very angry about some of what has happened over the past couple years, but he is his son and he loves him.”
Eden expressed doubts that there could be any true reconciliation if Harry doesn’t apologize — even though Harry said last year that he believes that he and Meghan are the ones owed apologies, due to the royal family’s treatment of Meghan when she was a senior working royal.
“You know what you did, and I now know why you did it. And you’ve been caught out, so just come clean,” Harry sensationally said in a January 2023 interview with The Telegraph. Harry also said that he exposed secrets about his family in his book, in oder to “save them from themselves.”
But royal supporters like Eden believe the apologies should come from the Montecito-based couple. Eden said on Palace Confidential that Harry’s visit to the U.K. offered a “great opportunity” for him to say to his father, “I’m sorry for all the hurt that we’ve put you through over the last few years. … Unless he does that, there’s still going to be a real edge between him and his father and his brother.”
Both Eden and English agreed that it was wise for Harry to make the trip unaccompanied by Meghan, given that there’s a view among some royal family members that the American former TV actor is a disruptive force who turned Harry against his relatives.
Eden also thought it was “rather tasteless” the way that Harry and Meghan rushed out a statement Monday, saying that Harry was jumping on a plane to fly 5,000 miles to the U.K. to be with the king, so soon after Buckingham Palace announced his father’s cancer diagnosis. On Monday, the palace announced that an unspecified form cancer was discovered when the king underwent treatment for an enlarged prostate.
“I’m always concerned that they want to be the center of attention,” Eden said.
Harry and Meghan should be at the center of attention next week when they travel to Canada for an event to commemorate a year until the Invictus Games in Vancouver and Whistler, the Daily Mail reported.
