Prince Harry reignited tensions with his family on Tuesday as his latest intervention coincided with a major State Visit in Windsor.
His first interview since returning to Britain threatened to overshadow an important day for King Charles and the Prince of Wales, who welcomed the Sultan of Oman to Windsor.
Although the Duke of Sussex said reconciliation with his family was “the most important thing” to him, he appeared to take a swipe at his estranged brother by suggesting that “some people don’t want it to work out.”
Harry’s latest intervention was met with widespread eye-rolling in royal circles.
Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace declined to comment, while senior royal figures are understood to have grown weary of Harry’s repeated appeals for “peace”.
“Does he really think everyone has collective amnesia after the last few years?” one source said last week, after Harry and his wife Meghan made their first public appearance since their surprise return to the UK.
The 42-minute interview with GQ magazine was published as King Charles, Queen Camilla, William and Kate met the Sultan at Windsor Castle for a private lunch after his ceremonial welcome to Britain.
Yet Harry quickly dominated the headlines with his message that “with everything else going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile”.
Prince Harry speaks during a 42-minute interview with GQ magazine on Tuesday
Harry sat with Senior Special Projects Editor Zach Baron for the interview
The Prince and Princess of Wales ahead of the state banquet for the Sultan of Oman on Tuesday evening
He told his interviewer that “sibling disagreements” and “broken relationships between kids and their parents” were “massively relatable” subjects that frequently arose in conversations with people.
“People look at us, and go ‘How are you going to work it out?’” he said, adding: “Some people don’t want it to work out. I want it to work out.”
Harry and William have not spoken for four years. After stepping down as frontline royals in 2020, the Sussexes deepened the divide by accusing the Royal Family of racism during their high-profile interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Relations deteriorated further after the publication of Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare, in which he accused his “archnemesis” brother, whom he called “Willy”, of throwing him to the floor during an argument over Meghan being “difficult”.
On Tuesday, Harry, 42, acknowledged that “scars stick around for ever” but urged people to “let go of the past”. “That’s something that I would encourage everybody to do,” he said. “For me, there’s enough drama in the world and enough drama in people’s lives than to continue with issues with family.” The Duke said he was grieving his “complicated relationships” with the King and the Prince of Wales but still wanted to reconcile.
Hours after the interview was released, a Sussex spokesman insisted Harry had not been referring to William when he said that “some people” did not want reconciliation, amid speculation about who the apparent criticism was aimed at.
The spokesman said: “It was absolutely not intended as a swipe at his brother or any other member of his family.
“The comment was made in a general context and was not directed at his family in any way.”
Harry’s call for reconciliation came as the King and Queen, William and Catherine, the Prime Minister and other dignitaries gathered in Windsor for a lavish state banquet on Tuesday night.
King Charles, the Sultan of Oman and Queen Camilla at Tuesday night’s banquet
A portrait of the Prince and Princess of Wales at the event at Windsor Castle on Tuesday
The Duke of Sussex is on speaking terms with the King, and said in the interview regarding Charles’s battle with cancer: ‘He’s getting better.’
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Harry said he still misses his mother, Princess Diana, every day but does not ‘sit there and go really deep into how I’m feeling’.
He said: ‘It’s just a quick, ‘Well, I miss you. I wonder what the world would be like if you were still here. I wonder what my family would be like if you were still here’.’
He revealed he sometimes asks her questions, ‘looking for some kind of response – and sometimes, I do get a response’.
Harry said: ‘There is a connection still with my mum that I do feel her energy at certain times.’ Reflecting on her death when he was 12, Harry said: ‘Back then, I didn’t know myself. The grief, the trauma, the loss, the fact that I was 12, I had no idea who I really was.’
The duke insisted he ‘certainly doesn’t want any sympathy’, telling his interviewer: ‘Why? Because I’m a prince. I’ve got a support network around me, I’ve done different forms of therapy, and I put in the work.’
On Tuesday night the Princess of Wales arrived at the state banquet wearing one of Princess Diana’s favourite tiaras – the Lover’s Knot.
It is one of the Royal Family’s most famous headpieces, originally created for Queen Mary in 1914.
The tiara was passed down to the late Queen Elizabeth before she reportedly loaned it to Diana as a wedding gift.
Kate also donned diamond earrings and a bracelet from the late Queen on Tuesday night. The princess chose a flowing yellow Elie Saab dress coupled with a gold box clutch for the event in honour of Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said.
She wore the King Charles III Royal Family Order and her Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Sash and Star.
Prince William was no slouch in the style stakes in white tie and the Windsor tail coat, his Most Noble Order of the Garter Sash with the Lesser George and other medals and decorations.
Queen Camilla was regal in royal blue and jewels, while the King sported the Sash of the Order of Al Said – an honour given to him by the Sultan earlier in the day.
In his speech, Charles spoke of the importance of the friendship between Britain and Oman at a time of ‘painful’ conflict in the Middle East.
And amid the continuing drama around Prince Harry, he told the Sultan of Oman of his pride that both ‘our sons’ – Prince William and the Crown Prince of Oman – had been joint patrons of the Jewel of Arabia expedition, a cultural and environmental trek through the region last year.
Harry’s interview, which was recorded in late September but released on Tuesday, focused on grief, a subject on which he recently released an online MasterClass, for which some estimate he may have been paid up to $100,000 (£75,000). The Royal Family traditionally dislike speaking out about anything personal, and the fact that Harry is continuing to do so will do little to soothe family relations.
The duke said it was ‘nice to be back’ after he and Meghan’s shock return to the UK six years after fleeing to North America.
He said the move ‘wasn’t something that we planned for a long time’ but it was an opportunity to ‘be outside of the US for the next few months’.
At the magazine’s New York office, in Manhattan, he told how the couple’s children, Archie and Lilibet, were ‘loving’ their new school in Britain, adding: ‘It’s just giving them a whole different experience.
‘For kids at seven and five, to be able to have that comparison, and to have two completely different cultural experiences, is so important today.’
Prince Harry also said he wanted to ‘draw a line’ after his battles with the Press.
In July, he and others lost a £50million court case after a judge threw out allegations they had made against Associated Newspapers, Our News Outlet’s publisher.
Harry now said he was ‘doing the best that I can, doing everything I can, to try to uplift and support journalism.’
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