Prince Harry signals desire to reconcile with Royal Family

Prince Harry has made a public appeal for reconciliation with the Royal Family, particularly his father King Charles and his brother Prince William. In an interview with GQ magazine, the Duke of Sussex was asked about his complicated relationships with his family. "With everything else that's going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile. That's the key point," Harry said. The overture comes after several years of estrangement, during which Harry and his wife Meghan stepped back as working royals in 2020 and moved to California.

Royal experts say achieving that reconciliation could be a significant challenge. "I think on a personal level, King Charles III will want to spend time with his grandchildren, so I can see a personal reconciliation happening on that level," said Toronto-based royal author and historian Carolyn Harris. "In the wider Royal Family, it seems very unlikely that a reconciliation will take place, because of all the events that have unfolded over the past six years." Those events include a Netflix docuseries, an interview with Oprah Winfrey and Harry's memoir Spare, which offered pointed criticism of the Royal Family.

Harry and Meghan returned to the U.K. with their two children in August for public engagements. Buckingham Palace and the King have made it clear they remain non-working royals. Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert and lecturer in law at Royal Holloway, noted recent reports that the couple dislike the term "working royal." "So it's all … quite confusing in some way, because if you wanted to seek reconciliation with the broader Royal Family, don't let it come out that you don't like the term that defines them rather than you," Prescott said.

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Harris suggested Harry's continued public commentary may be counterproductive. "The more that Prince Harry speaks to the press, the less likely it is that a reconciliation … will take place, as there are likely concerns among his wider family that if they do meet with Prince Harry, he will speak of it in future interviews," she said. Prescott added that Harry and Meghan are trying to achieve private things by going public. "Generally, that's not how the monarchy works," he said. "The monarchy has always tried to keep a … distinction [between the private and public roles], and William, I think, is very keen on that distinction."

Prescott noted that William "talks about going to work." "And so the whole way Harry has gone about this is almost an anathema to how William wants to do this," he said. Harris said the conflict with Harry has had the effect of bringing William and the King closer together. "When we do look at the sweep of royal history, it's rare for a monarch and an adult heir to be on the same page in this manner," she said. Rifts among royals are not new, with historical examples including conflicts between medieval kings and their sons, and the permanent estrangement of King Edward VIII after his abdication in 1936.

With files from CBC News