Prince Harry has said he wants to repair relations with his family, while appearing to direct a pointed message at Prince William: “Some people don’t want it to work out.”
The Duke of Sussex has not spoken to his brother for four years. He acknowledged that he continues to grieve the “complicated” and broken relationships he has with William and his father.
Harry said there was “enough drama in the world” without prolonging family disputes. He suggested there were parts of the past they might “all like to leave behind us” in order to “work for the greater good.”
In comments that seemed to refer to his brother, the future king, Harry said: “Some people don’t want it to work out. I want it to work out.”
“With everything else that’s going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile. That’s the key point,” he added.
He said his “attitude has changed” since he and Meghan left Britain six years ago and stepped away from their roles as working royals.
Harry’s appeal for his family to move beyond old grievances came as King Charles, Queen Camilla, William and Catherine attended the State Visit of the Sultan of Oman in Windsor.
The Duke remains in contact with the King but has not seen him since returning to live in Britain. Harry admitted that being back in the UK had brought the painful family rift into sharper focus.
Although he said that “scars stick around forever,” Harry urged people to reconsider how they view past conflicts and make an effort to release old resentments.
Asked whether he was mourning the damaged relationships with his father and brother, Harry replied: “Yes, of course. I think from a family perspective, again, another massively relatable issue for so many people, sibling disagreements, broken relationships between kids and their parents, kids and one parent.”
He continued: “That continues to come up with me the whole time with people that I speak to, so I know how relatable it is. People maybe look at us and go, ‘How are you gonna work it out? Maybe that will help me work my stuff out.’”
“As a 42-year-old man with two kids, a boy and a girl… you start to look back at your past and your parents as to what you have carried from them, what they’ve handed over to you, what you want to take on and what you don’t,” he said.
In the wide-ranging interview, which largely explored mental health and his grief following the death of his mother, Harry also said he did not believe he deserved sympathy merely because he is a member of the royal family.
“I certainly don’t want any sympathy. That’s where we’re way past that. 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. I wonder where I would be if I didn’t. It could be a very different situation,” he said.
Prince Harry says he now wants to repair relations with his family after returning to the UK
The Prince and Princess of Wales attend the Sultan of Oman’s State Visit in Windsor
King Charles, pictured with Queen Camilla and Catherine, has not seen the Sussexes since their return in August
Harry appeared as the latest guest in GQ’s One More Question interview series.
The Sussexes stepped down from royal duties in 2020, citing personal and financial reasons.
Not long afterwards, the couple gave their explosive interview to Oprah Winfrey, accusing members of Harry’s family of racism and of showing little concern when Meghan said she had experienced suicidal thoughts.
William was famously forced to respond publicly to the racism allegations, declaring: ‘We’re very much not a racist family.’
Relations deteriorated further following accusations Harry publicly levelled at his brother in two tell-alls: his memoir Spare and his Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.
In his autobiography, released months after Queen Elizabeth II died, Harry described his ‘archnemesis’ brother ‘Willy’ allegedly physically attacking him and knocking him to the floor during a row over Meghan.
Harry and Meghan also claimed in their Netflix series that Kensington Palace had lied to protect William when it issued a statement denying a report that he had bullied the Sussexes out of the Royal Family.
But Harry has now said he wants to reconcile with his family.
He told GQ: ‘For me, there’s enough drama in the world and enough drama in people’s lives to continue with issues with family.’
The Duke was speaking about grief, a subject on which he has also released an online MasterClass, which may have earned him up to $100,000.
Harry claimed that he and Meghan were ready to return to Britain after fighting ‘battles’ in the country over the past six years.
Their ‘attitude has changed’ and it was now ‘slightly easier’ to come back, he said.
‘I think once you’ve been through it, once you’ve been able to talk about it, and raise awareness to it, then people see it for what it is, it makes the environment slightly easier. It’s not going to necessarily stop the behaviour, but I think the behaviour might, my hope that it will, change,’ Harry said.
He added: ‘What happened back then was then. What’s happened over the last six years has been a continuation of that. Some battles that had been fought, and necessarily so.
‘With everything else that’s going on in the world, there’s aspects of the past that I’m sure all of us, me, my family, and some of the British press, that we’d all like to leave behind us and work for the greater good.’
Harry also said he was no longer the same person he had been in his hard-partying younger years.
‘If the world around you is changing, then you can’t stay the same,’ he said.
‘So many people over the years have said, “Oh, he’s changed.” It’s like, also, I’m no longer falling out of nightclubs drunk. Is that what you wanted for me?’
Harry spoke at length about the loss of his mother in 1997.
He said: ‘I don’t sit there – and I probably should – but I don’t sit there and go really deep into how I’m feeling. 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”.’
‘So there are questions that I ask myself, and sometimes there are questions that I ask her, looking for some kind of response. And sometimes, I do get a response. Having done the work that I’ve done, there is a connection still with my mum that I do feel her energy at certain times, in certain parts of my life.’
On growing up with the grief of losing his mother he said: ‘When I was young, was I going out and having a good time with friends? Yes. Was I sometimes doing that to suppress the sadness of losing my mum? Yes. Was I aware of it at the time? Absolutely not.
‘I love the fact that I’m able to now sort of carry the memory of my mother with me, with my work, rather than it hold me down, pull me back, or wallowing in that grief.’
He said that his time in the British Army ‘grounded’ him – but it was also an ‘escape’ from his problems.
‘Ten years in the military really grounded me and it gave me a set of specifics of skills, and it gave me a certain set of values that I will live by for the rest of my life. It was an escape for me, and I didn’t realise what it was doing for me then, or what I was using it to get away from.
‘I was running from something. And being in the military gave me the perfect distraction. And I was also a perfect candidate: A highly adrenalized 20-something year old. Strip away the title and who I am and everything else, it’s like, “You’re coming from a broken home. And so many people come from broken homes, and actually, when it comes to recruiting, we are very good at recruiting from broken homes”.’
Meghan (pictured with Harry in Nottingham) is said to be keen to return to acting, both on screen and even on stage and is said to insist she does not see herself as a working royal, more an entrepreneur and ‘full time mum’
Rumours remain rife as to why they unexpectedly relocated to the UK from California, where they had created a life away from the institution of the monarchy.
Speculation ranges from the couple wanting their children to develop a closer relationship with their grandfather the King, Meghan seeking a return to acting and the Sussexes wanting to increase their profile.
In the run-up to their return on August 26, Charles was said to be glad to be able to spend more time with the family but remained adamant they would not be working royals, and there was no half-in, half-out option.
Within two weeks of arriving, there was reported pushback from Harry and Meghan after a letter, authorised by the King, was circulated by the Lord Chamberlain to senior stakeholders in the Government and military reiterating the couple were ‘private citizens’ and setting out guidance on how they should be treated.
The duke and duchess were said to be ‘surprised’ by the formal letter and the couple, who are waiting to hear whether they will be given taxpayer-funded security, were reported to prefer the term ‘public figures’ instead.
Schooling has also been an issue for the Sussexes, with Archie and Lilibet moved to a new undisclosed institution after reportedly just two days in class.
The decision came after heavy traffic and the lengthy journey to the school reportedly put their security team under strain.
Harry famously revealed how Charles pleaded with his two sons during a tense meeting at Windsor just after the funeral of Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, saying: ‘Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery’.
But they do not appear any closer to reconciliation.
There was also a rift between Meghan and Kate, who was like a sister to Harry.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan described how Kate made her cry ahead of the wedding – the opposite of reports circulating ahead of the nuptials that Meghan had left Kate in tears at Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress fitting.
Reports of a fractious friendship between the two women were furthered in Spare, when he claimed Kate, pregnant at the time with Prince Louis, said she was owed an apology from Meghan for comments she was suffering from ‘baby brain’ due to her ‘hormones’.
Harry also shed further light on the row over Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress, claiming in his book the incident left Meghan ‘sobbing on the floor’.
William and Harry leave church at the Sandringham royal estate in Norfolk in December 2003
The brothers, pictured in 2021, were once incredibly close but no more
Following Harry and Meghan’s return to the UK, there will be no change to their role and status as private individuals and non-working members of the royal family.
The King has called them ‘private citizens’ but is understood to welcome the opportunity to see more of the family both in a personal capacity.
In January 2020, the duke and duchess announced they intended to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family, become financially independent, still support Elizabeth II, but split their time between the UK and North America.
The late Queen ruled at the Sandringham Summit, which was convened to resolve the crisis, that the couple could not be half in and half out.
A source this week claimed this was ‘foisted upon them’ as Harry and Meghan carried out their own pseudo-royal duties at three charities in Nottingham.
Harry has faced a protracted legal battle with the Home Office over the security arrangements for him and his family while in the UK, after his level of protection changed when he stepped down as a working royal in 2020.
Individual decisions on protective security for key public figures – including members of the royal family – are made by experts at the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec).
Meghan was able to travel to the UK in July with Archie and Lilibet to join Harry when he came to the end of a week-long series of events promoting the games.
During the visit, the duke and duchess took their children to see the King for the first time in four years at his Highgrove home, but are not thought to have raised the prospect of a return to the UK at that meeting.