When a family genuinely wants to make peace, someone usually reaches for the phone or writes a private note. People do not normally announce their intentions through a newspaper.
The late Queen Elizabeth understood that distinction. After the Oprah interview, her statement acknowledged that “some recollections may vary” and said the issue would “be addressed by the family privately.” That principle remains relevant.
That is why reports this week in Britain’s Daily Express, claiming that Prince Harry and Meghan were prepared to apologize to Prince William and Catherine, prompted considerable skepticism. Claims of this kind are best treated cautiously.
Within days, a vocal source close to the Sussexes, apparently in something of a panic, told People magazine that the suggestion was “nonsense.”
Why did the Daily Express publish the story in the first place? Had no one considered the lesson of the boy who cried wolf?
The denial may have caused more damage than the original report. Before it appeared, Prince Harry and Meghan had simply not apologized. Now, according to their camp, they will not even contemplate doing so. People who reject the possibility of an apology can give the impression that they believe they have nothing to regret.
That point seemed to pass almost everyone by.
The Sussexes know exactly what contrition looks like. They have experienced plenty of it—just rarely as the people expected to offer it.
The Sussexes know exactly what contrition looks like. They have experienced plenty of it—just rarely as the people expected to offer it
Reports in Britain’s Daily Express claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan were prepared to apologize to Prince William and Catherine
When a family wants to make peace, someone usually reaches for the phone or sends a private note. The late Queen Elizabeth understood that
When a British tabloid apologized to Meghan in 2022, her spokesman dismissed the gesture as “nothing more than a PR stunt,” adding: “A true apology would be a shift in their coverage and ethical standards for all.”
During her March 2021 interview with Oprah, Meghan described concerns and conversations within the royal family about how dark her unborn son’s skin might be. Neither she nor Harry identified the person involved, leaving senior royals under suspicion. Prince William was left telling reporters: “We are very much not a racist family.”
Two years later, a Dutch edition of a book by an author viewed as friendly toward the couple named the King, who was then the Prince of Wales, and Catherine. The publisher withdrew and pulped the edition, but not before the names had spread around the world.
When ITV anchor Tom Bradby pressed Harry on whether he had accused his family of racism, he rejected the claim. “No I didn’t,” Harry said. “The British press said that.” He preferred the term “unconscious bias” and offered his own standard: “If you are called out for unconscious bias, you need to make that right.”
Applied to the family situation, that principle might have resulted in the letter Harry’s representatives now say will never be sent.
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The dispute matters beyond the private tensions within the royal family. The monarchy has little hard power and depends heavily on public goodwill. An unresolved allegation of racism involving the Sovereign and the wife of his heir strikes at the institution’s foundations. As a result, silence from Montecito is unlikely to be viewed as neutral.
The Sussexes’ commercial ventures have also brought disappointment. After their Spotify podcast agreement ended in 2023, Bill Simmons, one of the company’s executives, called them “grifters.” I would not choose that description myself, but it reflected a wider mood. Harry and Meghan left royal duties in part to escape intense scrutiny, yet they have rarely been out of the spotlight since. In Britain, their popularity has not recovered.
Would Prince William and Catherine trust an apology if one arrived? I am doubtful. They have seen private conversations reach Oprah’s studio and later appear in a ghostwritten memoir. Family trust is repaired slowly—often over Sunday lunch, and usually long after the arguments have ended.
I watched Harry grow from a small boy in short trousers into a young officer returning from Afghanistan, and I remain fond of him. His struggles with depression should be taken seriously. But those personal confidences belonged in a therapist’s office, not on the front pages.
Nor, some will argue, on a subscription service. His spokesman confirmed that MasterClass paid Harry to co-instruct Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss with the American neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor, but would say no more.
Would William and Catherine trust an apology if it came? Highly doubtful
Trust in families mends slowly, usually over Sunday lunch, long after the shouting
According to Forbes, MasterClass instructors can expect at least $100,000 up front plus 30 percent of the subscription revenue their courses generate. Grief is universal. Few of us are paid to discuss ours.
His work now revolves around the Invictus Games, which he founded for injured servicemen and women. It is his finest work.
The King, I suspect, wants something narrower: contrition toward his wife. In Spare, Harry wrote that he believed his stepmother had ‘sacrificed me on her personal PR altar.’ Queen Camilla has never answered back.
The same book records the King’s plea to his sons: ‘Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.’ Whether Harry made amends to her this summer when they met at Highgrove, the King’s country home, we do not know.
People do change, and this family offers proof. Camilla went from the most vilified woman in Britain to a crowned Queen. In Spare, of all places, Harry wrote: ‘In a funny way I even wanted Camilla to be happy.’
Last year he told the BBC: ‘I would love reconciliation with my family. Life is precious.’ Months later he was having tea with his father at Clarence House.
Shakespeare’s Prince Hal wasted his youth in the taverns of Eastcheap and grew up to win at Agincourt as Henry V.
Nobody expects Harry to conquer France, or even to win back the hearts and minds of the British people.
Just saying sorry to his dad, step-mum, brother and sister-in-law would be a start.
