Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth in 2009.Photo:Chris Jackson/Getty
Chris Jackson/Getty
Prince Harry’s rift with the royal family feels wider than ever a year afterQueen Elizabeth’s death.
After Prince Harry andMeghan Marklestepped back from their royal roles in 2020 and relocated to California, they continued to support his grandmother Queen Elizabeth at certain events. They traveled to the U.K. in June 2022 to mark the late monarch’s Platinum Jubilee, and they were present at her funeral events a few months later in September.
Queen Elizabeth — despite being someone with whom Prince Harry had “his own rapport,” as royal biographer andQueen of Our Timesauthor Robert Hardman put it in PEOPLE’s new cover story —was tough with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when she felt she had to be. When the couple announced their plans to step back from their working roles within the royal family, the Queen decided they couldn’t be half in, half out of the royal family as they’d hoped.
In response, Prince Harry and Meghan pushed back with a statement that pointedly referenced the Queen’s: “We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.”
Queen Elizabeth applied the same tactics when her son Prince Andrew, 63, was removed from public duty amid his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Despite Queen Elizabeth being the matriarch who often brought her family together, there is some hope for an eventual reconciliation between Prince Harry and the royal family. The most recent sign was when the Duke of Sussex traveled to the U.K. for his father’s coronation in May (although Meghan stayed in California).
“I’m sure [the King] misses him. Harry is entertaining, warm and very loving as well. And they had a great relationship,” a source close to the royal household tells PEOPLE.
King Charles “leans toward the compassionate rather than the disciplinarian style of family leadership,” adds Hardman, implying hope for the future.
King Charles and Prince Harry in 2019.Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage
source: people.com
