Hopes Harry’s flying visit will help mend royal family’s rift
PRINCE HARRY has reportedly arrived in the UK for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral – amid hopes the sombre occasion might help heal his rift with the royal family.
The Duke of Sussex is said to have been on a British Airways flight from LA to Heathrow yesterday afternoon.
Wearing ‘chinos, a jacket and black face mask’, he was met by security on the runway and left in a black Range Rover, reported The Sun. It is thought he will stay at Kensington Palace during his visit.
The duke and his older brother, Prince William, are to walk together behind the Land Rover carrying Prince Philip’s coffin to its St George’s Chapel resting place at Windsor Castle after Saturday’s funeral.
It will be the first time they have met since the Sussexes’ bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview last month, in which Harry and wife Meghan discussed their rift with the royal family. The duchess dubbed them the ‘The Firm’. Harry also claimed his brother felt ‘trapped’ in the royal family – a remark said to have angered the Duke of Cambridge.
Follow-up phone talks between the pair were fractious, according to reports. Former premier Sir John Major, who was in No.10 when the princes’ parents – the Prince and Princess of Wales – marriage broke down in the 1990s, said yesterday he hoped the funeral could help end the ‘friction’ involving the Sussexes.
His comments came after Cardinal Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, had said: ‘Many a family gather and get over tension and broken relationships at the time of a funeral. Something very profound unites them all again – that would be true of this family, I am sure.’
When asked about the cardinal’s words on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show, Sir John said: ‘I’m sure he is right. The friction we are told has arisen is a friction better ended as speedily as possible. A shared emotion, a shared grief, because of the death of their grandfather, I think is an ideal opportunity.
‘I hope very much that it is possible to mend any rifts that may exist.’
Harry will avoid spending a mandatory ten days in quarantine – a rule imposed on other people returning to Britain from overseas, according to reports.
Some jobs are exempt – including ‘Crown servants’ on state business – while exemptions are also allowed on ‘compassionate grounds’. The duchess
has been advised by doctors not to make the trip because of her pregnancy.
She will remain at their family home in California with their 23-month-old son Archie. During his TV interview with Winfrey, Harry spoke of a breakdown in relations with his father Prince Charles, who allegedly stopped taking his phone calls during discussions over the Sussexes’ decision to quit front-line royal duties and move to the US.
But reports at the weekend said Charles felt ‘very happy’ his sons would be reunited.
The meeting will be the first time Harry has seen other royals since the Westminster Abbey Commonwealth Day service on March 9 last year.
He had been expected to return to the UK to help William unveil a statue to their late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, at Kensington Gardens on July 1 – on what would have been her 60th birthday. Royal author Penny Junor said: ‘My hope is that if something good can come out of the duke’s death it will be that it brings the family together.
‘But clearly there is a lot of hurt on all sides and I imagine they will all be feeling apprehensive about seeing one another again. ‘With luck, their desire to support the Queen and pull together for her sake will win the day.’