Why Prince Harry booked ‘one-way ticket’ to UK for Prince Philip’s funeral

New details have emerged over what Prince Harry hoped for when he returned home for his grandfather’s funeral and why leaving the royal family was “hard”.

Prince Harry booked a one-way flight London for Prince Philip’s funeral in the hope he could resolve alleged rifts with his family, the Duke of Sussex’s biographer Omid Scobie has claimed in a new chapter of the book, Finding Freedom.

The new extract from the book, which is to be released with a new chapter chronicling the Sussexes’ lives over the past few months – claims that Prince Harry booked a one-way ticket because he “didn’t know how the trip would pan out” – and wasn’t entirely sure when he would return to wife Meghan and son Archie in the US.

Prince Harry talked face-to-face with his brother in 15 months at Prince Philip’s funeral. Picture: BBC

“There was a feeling that this trip might also present an opportunity to come together and talk without the filter of staff as go-betweens, a number of whom the Sussexes had come to discover were behind many of the media leaks they dealt with as working royals,” the extract, published in People magazine in the US continues.

It also claims that Prince Harry’s conversation with Prince William outside the chapel after the service was the brothers’ first face-to-face conversation in 15 months.

Scobie and Finding Freedom co-writer, Carolyn Durand, also claim that the two princes had “at least two further conversations” during Prince Harry’s trip home, while the royal also allegedly spoke to his father Prince Charles, but their problems remained “unresolved”.

Scobie and Durand also claim that the trip “broke the ice” between father and son and that the door to a reconciliation is now “slightly ajar”.

Members of the royal family at Prince Philip’s funeral. Picture: Getty Images

COUPLE’S ROYAL EXIT ‘HARDER THAN THEY IMAGINED’

Meanwhile, Scobie also revealed that the couple’s exit from the royal family was “harder than they would ever have imagined” after “trying to find a compromise”, their pal has revealed.

Scobie says the couple had Megxit “mapped out in their heads” but hoped to find a “half in, half out way” before stepping down as senior royals, according to a report in The Sun.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their second child Lillibet Diana in June after moving to the US with son Archie last year.

Relations between the brothers have thawed in recent months. Picture: AFP

Scobie, the preferred reporter of the Sussexes – who co-authored their biography Finding Freedom – said their exit from royal life was more difficult for the couple than they had contemplated.

“The hardest part for them was taking those initial steps away from their royal roles,” Scobie told PEOPLE.

“That was harder than they ever would have imagined … They had it all mapped out in their heads. They tried to find a way to compromise and find the half in, half out way.”

– with The Sun

Originally published as Why Prince Harry booked ‘one-way ticket’ to UK for Prince Philip’s funeral