Hope a shared grief will help to heal royal rifts

OUR hearts go out once more to the Queen, who has spoken of the “huge void” left in her life by the death of her husband Prince Philip.

Prince Andrew rightly described his father as “the grandfather of the nation” but, though his loss is felt by us all, few can know the anguish of bereavement felt by a woman who has lost her partner of more than 70 years.

Nor will we see it.

Her Majesty shared with the Duke of Edinburgh a profound sense of duty, acceptance and a determination to “just get on with it” in the face of adversity, so she will stoically keep going, as she always has, worrying more about others than herself.

The Duke’s own steely resolve and stiff upper lip were sometimes mistaken for coldness, but the recollections of John Sentamu, the former Archbishop of York, reveal a man who, above all, cared deeply about his family and worried about them.

As a person who never allowed his own traumatic childhood to define him, the Duke would have found it hard to understand Prince Harry’s recent tendency towards victimhood.

But as a caring grandfather, he would have only wanted Harry and wife Meghan to be happy.

Let us hope, as former Prime Minister John Major does, that shared grief will resolve the rift between Harry and the rest of the Royal Family, and bring about the healing the Duke did not live to see.