Prince Harry’s declaration that he wants to reunite with his father and long-estranged brother is an open “challenge” to the royal family — one which puts them in a very awkward situation, according to a friend of the family.
Harry, 42, spoke out Tuesday about his shock return to the UK with wife Meghan Markle and children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, and told GQ, “With everything else that’s going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile. That’s the key point.”
However, royal biographer Hugo Vickers told Page Six that while it may be a “key point” for Harry, the family he scorned may not see it the same way.
“Both the King and William have been very clever to say very little. They have not responded publicly, even when Prince Harry said that he wanted to put the past behind them. There is a hell of a lot of past to put behind them.
“These things should be worked out in private,” Vickers added. “Making public appearances and giving interviews does not make the situation any easier.”
“And even if Harry does not intend his actions to be a challenge, they will inevitably be interpreted that way, and that is unfortunate.”
Asked about his “complicated relationship” with his older brother Prince William — whom he has not seen since 2022 — and King Charles, Harry stressed that family rifts are a “massively relatable issue for so many people,” adding “And some people don’t want it to work out. I want it to work out.”
Although a Sussex rep later clarified his comment “was absolutely not intended as a swipe at his brother or any other member of his family,” Vickers noted Harry and Markle, 45, have made the idea of reconciliation difficult by embarking on a series of faux-royal engagements, including a joint visit to Nottingham last week.
Harry, meanwhile, also donned his military and royal medals when he attended the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, last month.
“If Harry and Meghan go to Nottingham or Harry attends an event wearing medals… to the general public it looks like a royal visit. Inevitably, people will ask why else they would have him? He is not just a private individual — he is still Prince Harry,” said Vickers, who most recently published the biography, “Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History.”
The King may have issued a letter to associations noting Meghan and Harry have returned to the UK as private citizens, “that doesn’t change anything, Vickers said.
“As far as the public is concerned, Harry is a distraction. His presence risks creating the impression of a challenge to the monarchy.
“He has made the situation very difficult, and he has only himself to blame,” Vickers added.
Harry admitted that part of his family’s decision to move back was so that Archie, 7, and Lilibet — nicknamed Lili, 5 — could attend British schools.
“Being able to put the kids in a British school has meant a lot to me. I didn’t know how important it was to me,” Harry told GQ.
“Don’t worry, I’m not criticizing American schools,” he continued. “But I think for kids at 7 and 5 to be able to have that comparison and to have two completely different cultural experiences is so important today.”
Harry stressed that he wanted to be “back closer to my family and back on UK soil for longer than a few days or a week here or there.”
Vickers added, “Perhaps he wants his children to have a good education. That is an argument. But making all these appearances and giving these interviews inevitably creates a different impression.”
Overall, Vickers has always agreed it’s a good idea for Harry to reconcile with his father, whom as Page Six reported, he has yet to see in person since arriving back in the UK — although they have spoken multiple times on the phone, according to sources.
“It is a very unhappy situation for the King to have this ongoing estrangement with his son. He has enough emotional baggage to carry without this. It is not a good situation.”
For William, Vickers said, it brings to mind how the late Queen Elizabeth treated her uncle, the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated his role as King George VI for his wife Wallace Simpson.
The Queen, he said, would hold him at arm’s length.
“I don’t think William is doing anything actively hostile,” he said. “He has a great deal on his plate: he is the heir to the throne, he has a young family, his father is not terribly well, and his wife has also been unwell,” he said referring to their respective battles against cancer.
Multiple sources have frequently told us that, for William, the anger he felt at his younger brother’s actions — of leaving his role as a working royal and then writing a bombshell memoir and making a Netflix documentary — have dissipated and turned to apathy.
As one palace source told Page Six, “William doesn’t want anything to do with Harry, and he has a stony mindset when he puts his mind to something.”