Splitting heirs?
Harry and William still struggling to heal rift
THERE is no doubt that Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the royal family remains deeply fractured, and it seems much work is still required on both sides to repair the damage.
With the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year now underway, Harry will come under increasing pressure to iron out his differences with his father Charles and brother William.
“Harry will want to be a part of the celebratory weekend in June, and will almost certainly be required to appear with William at that time,” says royal reporter Katie Nicholl.
“It seems to me that both brothers will have to make concessions... the Jubilee should give them more of a chance to thrash it out.
“It’s the same with Prince Charles – Harry is going to have to meet his father and look him straight in the eye if their issues are to be fixed.”
It was Katie who first reported a rift between Harry and William back in late 2018, when it was suggested that the Cambridges may not have been entirely welcoming of Meghan. “Harry felt William wasn’t rolling out the red carpet for Meghan and told him so,” a source claimed. Things were not helped when William reportedly voiced concerns over Harry’s blossoming romance with Meghan, apparently advising his younger sibling, “This seems to be moving quickly, are you sure?” In the three years since, the hostilities have simmered away, with the Sussexes’ controversial split from the family fanning the flames and their TV tell-all with Oprah Winfrey last March seen as pure napalm. In that interview, which Katie says left William “devastated”, the couple spoke warmly of the Queen, but accused the family of “total neglect” following multiple requests for support.
They also claimed the family failed to condemn the racism Meghan had been subjected to, and that an unnamed royal expressed concern about “how dark” baby Archie’s skin might be. Meghan even told how she had contemplated suicide.
As the revelations kept tumbling out, Harry claimed Charles had cut him off financially, and that his father refused to take his calls, adding he felt “really let down”.
However, he added, “I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try to heal that relationship.”
It seems a little healing may have taken place in the months since, as it was reported in the US in December that Harry and Charles are now speaking again, with a source telling website Page Six, “The channels of communication are open”.
Any reconciliation may also yet be damaged by Harry’s forthcoming memoir. The book promises to be an “accurate and wholly truthful” account of his life, with Harry stating he would write it “not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become”.
Estimated to have been inked in a £15 million deal, the memoir is due for release in the autumn, and royal author Duncan Larcombe believes Harry’s future royal relationships rest firmly on what it contains.