While the estrangement between Prince Harry and King Charles has impacted much of the royal family, a royal commentator has weighed in on how heart-broken the late Queen would be over the royal rift
Prince Harry and King Charles have not been on speaking terms for several years, with the rift in the royal family also impacting the Prince and Princess of Wales and Queen Camilla.
Harry and Meghan have largely remained in the US since their self-imposed exile in 2020, with the royal family at large having little opportunity to spend quality time with the Sussex children Archie and Lilibet.
With Prince Harry just days away from a rare trip to UK shores, royal experts have weighed in on how far reaching the royal rift has spread, and what the late Queen Elizabeth would think about her warring family.
READ MORE: Kate Middleton shows off striking new blonde hair in return to royal duties with WilliamREAD MORE: King Charles gives health update as he comforts cancer patient on hospital visit
While Harry and Meghan have steered clear of returning to the UK together in recent years for several reasons, their detachment from the firm has also meant their children – Archie, six, and Lilibet, four – are now sadly cut off from their grandfather, King Charles, their aunt and uncle, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and their three young cousins, George, Charlotte and Louis.
For the late Queen, who was never happier than when surrounded by close family, this would be the bitterest pill to swallow, according to royal author Phil Dampier.
“I think she would have been absolutely devastated by the fact that the King’s not seeing them [Archie and Lilibet],” he told OK! magazine. “They are sixth and seventh in the line of succession at the moment, so she would be very upset.”
“And I don’t think she would have liked the fact that Harry’s never met [Meghan’s father] Thomas Markle, or that the kids have never met him.”
Royal expert Katie Nicholl also weighed on how the late Queen would’ve reacted to Harry and Meghan’s decisions over the years, as she said: “I’m sure she would be deeply saddened and disappointed by how things have played out with the Duke of Sussex.”
“But I think nothing would really surprise her when it comes to Harry and Meghan because she saw so much herself. She had to live through the Oprah Winfrey interview [Harry and Meghan’s controversial 2021 televised chat with the US talk show host] and the devastating fallout from that while the Duke of Edinburgh was seriously ill in hospital.
“And, of course, she had to deal with the fallout of Harry and Meghan leaving. So I think there would just be a great sense of sadness that it had all come to this. Harry not speaking to his father or his brother, being estranged – ostracised, even – from the family, was certainly not anything she ever wanted.”
Phil agrees that, considering Harry’s past form, his late grandmother would not have been too surprised by the Prince’s recent dramas.
“I think she was very upset and exasperated by his antics even while she was alive,” he says. “She specifically laid it down at the Sandringham Summit [the infamous meeting at the Queen’s Norfolk residence where she, Harry, Charles and William discussed the Duke of Sussex’s future following his and Meghan’s decision to step down as working royals] that he couldn’t be ‘half in and half out’.
“If he’d said, ‘I just don’t want to be a royal, I can’t cope with it. I’ve met this girl and I want to live abroad,’ I think most people would have accepted it. But to then go and criticise the royals for the way he’d been treated… I think she was horrified and I think she would continue to be so today. If she was still alive, I think she’d be trying to bang a few heads together.”
