Will Harry and William ever speak again? It’s unlikely

While the Palace was eager to stress the brevity of Charles’ meeting with Harry was due to the King’s fatigue after cancer treatment, no reconciliation appears forthcoming with William.

Prince Harry and Prince William were barely civil to each other at the unveiling of a statue of their mother, Princess Diana at the Sunken Garden in Kensington Palace. Picture: AFP.

After a whirlwind 24-hour, 16,000km round trip to Britain for one 30-minute meeting with his father on Tuesday, the Duke of Sussex has flown back to his home in California.

Rather than being provided with accommodation in one of the many royal residences, Prince Harry, 39, is understood to have stayed overnight at a hotel.

The next day, he was at Heathrow for an afternoon flight to the United States to rejoin his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, and their children, Prince Archie, four, and Princess Lilibet, two. It had been hoped by some that his dash to be at the King’s side could be the start of a rapprochement between the pair.

Indeed, sources close to the King, who is 75, were eager to stress that the brevity of the visit was not a slight to his younger son, but merely an indication of his fatigue after the previous day’s hospital procedure.

It is understood that Charles delayed his flight to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk so that he could accommodate Harry’s visit. Following the meeting, the King and Queen were seen looking relaxed and smiling as they were driven away about 45 minutes after Harry’s arrival.

However, no one would have blamed the Queen for watching the clock during Harry’s visit.

In his autobiography Spare, which was published last year, Harry cast his stepmother as “dangerous” and accused her of courting public opinion to improve her public image after being cast as a “villain”.

He added that she had turned his bedroom into her dressing room after he moved out.

In the book he also quoted his father begging his sons “not to make my final years a misery”. That may well be ringing in his ears now. The fact that Harry made the journey at all will be a sign that he wishes to be reconciled with his father in his latter years.

Then Prince Charles, with Harry and William in happier times. Picture: Getty Images.

As for Harry and his brother, the Prince of Wales, no reconciliation appears to be forthcoming.

Harry and Meghan have said nothing publicly about his father’s condition nor that of his sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales. Like Camilla, Kate also came under attack in Harry’s book for “grimacing” when she had to offer Meghan some of her lip balm, and for taking it too personally when Meghan told her that she had “baby brain” after the birth of Prince Louis.

While the King maintains that the Sussexes remain “much-loved” members of the family, there have been no comforting words from William’s court at Kensington Palace.

There have been so many missed opportunities for the brothers to attempt a reconciliation that now any hope of a reunion looks vanishingly small.

Even events that celebrate that which they both hold dear, including memories of their late mother and grandmother, only seem to drive them further apart.

Prince Harry and Prince William watch a flypast to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Picture: Getty Images.

They had a joint plan to commission a statue of their mother but it would be years before the brothers could communicate to a point where both agreed with the design and the finished result. When on July 1, 2021, the day that would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday, they finally unveiled the bronze artwork depicting her in the sunken garden at Kensington Palace, they were barely civil to one another.

William and Harry, who had flown to London for a fleeting visit, were barely civil to one another as they set aside their differences for just a few minutes to stand shoulder to shoulder.

Within minutes of the public unveiling, however, Harry had departed the palace. Any hopes that anyone within the household might have had for a reconciliation came to nothing.

Prince William and Prince Harry arrive for the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace. Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images.

When their grandmother, the Queen, died in 2022 it appeared, on the surface at least, that they had managed to bury the hatchet. A year earlier Harry and Meghan had told Oprah Winfrey in a prime time television interview that Kate had made her cry – an allegation that infuriated Prince William.

However, a year later when the Sussexes were in Britain after the Queen’s death there was an apparent show of unity between the warring couples. Both the Waleses and the Sussexes were seen arriving in cars together to greet mourners and look at the floral tributes before the funeral.

Yet even that was fraught. Kate looked drawn and anxious and later said privately that it was one of the hardest things that she had ever had to do.

Now the Prince of Wales is increasingly looking like the statesman in waiting. William, 41, wishes to protect his wife and has made it clear that he has no intention of meeting his younger brother.

If the natural order is followed, he will be the next King. And if that speedy visit to Britain this week is anything to go by, Harry may well be realising that the time for reconciliation is running out.

The Times