BROKERING PEACE
Talks have to be held face-to-face in England, a source tells the Sunday Times. “It needs Harry over here, in the room with the king and the Prince of Wales, a couple of other family members and some of ‘his people’ he trusts, who always had his back, so he doesn’t think he’s being ambushed.
“People he trusts could be someone like Elf [Ed Lane Fox, Harry’s former private secretary] and Christopher [Lord Geidt, the late queen’s former private secretary who advised the Sussexes during their tenure as working royals].”
Both sides need to hold their hands up and admit they didn’t get everything right, the insider adds. “They need to admit, ‘We got a lot wrong’, and say to Harry, ‘We understand the pain you’ve been through’.
“The king can do it. Not everyone here behaved well, but Harry’s got to be able to sit down and say, ‘We didn’t behave well either.’ That takes a lot of academic flexibility, which Harry isn’t great at.”
Most experts agree Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, would be the best mediator. The 67-year-old church leader is a long-time trusted friend and confidant of the royals, having officiated over many of their weddings, christenings and funerals.
“There is always a way forward,” the archbishop has said of the royal feud. “But [reconciliation] has to be at the right time.”
Chief among the topics would be an insistence that Harry stops dishing the dirt on the family.
“They [Harry and Meghan] have to now be quiet and get on with their thing in America,” the Times insider says. “Harry has got to realise that what they say might all go down better there, but in the UK people have taken it very badly. You’ve said your piece, but why are you trying to torch the whole house?”