Prince Harry would like to reconcile with his family, The Daily Beast understands from a source familiar with his thinking, but friends of the royals have dismissed any such ambitions as “fantasy” to The Daily Beast.
The issue of reconciliation has been pushed back to the top of the agenda after a new report claimed that Harry was offered a royal property to stay in during his recent visit to London, but refused on security grounds.
The Telegraph claimed that “had the invitation been accepted, it may have provided an opportunity to spend some time together outside of their hectic schedules.”
The paper added that Harry was concerned the unidentified royal residence he was offered the use of did not have a private entrance, unlike the hotel he ultimately opted for.
The revelation—which Harry’s spokesperson has been approached for comment on—adds a new layer of complexity to the already tangled spiderweb of claims about how Harry is being treated by his family.
It follows a spate of articles in the British media urging the royals to reconcile with Harry and Meghan Markle, over four years after the couple shocked the establishment by leaving the royal family and embarking on a series of tell-all interviews and a tell-all memoir by Harry.
Harry now appears increasingly keen to reconcile, with one well-placed source telling The Daily Beast that the prince is indeed keen to resolve the conflict with his family.
This meshes with Harry’s recent public remarks on the matter. Earlier this month, when expressing his disappointment that his father King Charles III had not agreed to see him while he was visiting the U.K., it was notable that he very deliberately kept that door wide open, saying he hoped to meet his father in person “soon.”
Harry was also quoted as saying, in Omid Scobie’s latest book, Endgame, that he had dropped his demands for an apology from his family over what he has said was discriminatory treatment of Meghan, and just wanted to move on. Harry reportedly told a friend, “I’m ready to move past it. Whether I get an apology or accountability, who knows? Who really cares at this point?”
In another olive branch from his side, he walked back apparent claims of racism made to Oprah Winfrey, instead characterizing the discrimination as “unconscious bias.”
Scobie gave an inadvertent insight into the row when he disclosed in a hastily-pulped foreign language version of the book that it was Kate Middleton and Charles who had made comments about the likely skin color of Meghan and Harry’s then-unborn son Archie.
Talking to friends of the Windsors in recent days, it is notable that many of them, while sympathetic to the overarching Windsor complaint of broken trust and betrayal by Harry in his book, also suggest that the Windsors and their circle are now as exhausted as the Sussexes of the feud that has dominated the royal narrative for several years now.
As has been reported, it seems the major block in the way of reconciliation is coming from William. A friend of his told The Daily Beast: “Meeting with Harry is the last thing that William or Catherine want or need right now. It’s a fantasy. It’s not about apologies or who said what, it is about protecting his family. Kate is recovering from cancer, and they are avoiding stressful situations.”
A friend of Charles and Queen Camilla told The Daily Beast that the meeting between Harry and Charles after Charles was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year was a “significant step in the right direction,” but they added, “The idea that Harry and the kids are going to descend on Balmoral this summer is wishful thinking. It’s all just very sad.”
“A king not speaking to his brother over an argument about a broken dog bowl, a costume party almost twenty years ago, or who said what about some lip gloss, will make William look petty and ridiculous.”
— Friend of Charles and Camilla
The general atmosphere is summed up in comments made by another friend of Charles and Camilla, who told The Daily Beast: “Everyone understands that William is absolutely furious with his brother, but ‘absolutely furious’ isn’t a deliverable plan for a king, which William will be, perhaps sooner than he had imagined.
“A king not speaking to his brother over an argument about a broken dog bowl, a costume party almost twenty years ago, or who said what about some lip gloss, will make William look petty and ridiculous.”
The friend added that Charles is “gently trying to lead by example,” adding, “A king should be magnanimous.”
The comments echo remarks made by the journalist Petronella Wyatt in the Telegraph last week who said that Charles would like to warm up relations with Harry but is being “prevented” from doing so because of William’s well-known animosity to his brother. A friend told The Daily Beast that there was some truth in the remarks, although they said that Harry’s abrasive remarks about Camila in his book were also to blame for some of the froideur between Harry and the king.
They said that while there was no way William would have explicitly laid down an ultimatum banning his father from rekindling his relationship with Harry, a lessening of William’s seething hatred of his brother (another source previously told The Daily Beast William “fucking hates” Harry and Meghan) would indeed make it easier for Charles and Harry to reconcile.
Calls for the royals and Harry to put the argument behind them were also made by the influential Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones, who urged Charles and William to “be the bigger men” and “welcome the firm’s biggest assets back into the fold.”
William’s office did not respond to a request for comment, and nor did Charles’ or Harry’s.
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