Queen Elizabeth II never gave up hope that Prince Harry would reconcile with his family.
“The Queen adored Harry to the end, and Harry adored her,” royal author Robert Hardman told People in an article published Friday. “I think she was one of the channels between Windsor and California and it would have been one of her dearest wishes for them to patch things up.”
As many know, Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have been a long way from the family since announcing in January 2020 that they no longer wanted to work royals. They then settled in Montecito, California.
Harry’s shaky relationship with his family hit a new low in March 2021 when he and Markle sat down for an explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. In it, Harry, 38, criticized the way his father raised him and expressed compassion that his father and brother, Prince William, were “trapped” in their royal role.
In the same interview, Markle tearfully claimed that she had contemplated suicide while pregnant with their son, Archie, due to the pressures of living as a royal and her treatment by the British media.
The Duchess says she went to a senior member of the palace for help and was turned down.
The 41-year-old “Suits” also recently gave a controversial interview in which she claimed that “just by existing”, she and Harry “disrupted the dynamics of the hierarchy”.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been in Europe for several charity events when Queen Elizabeth died on September 8 at the age of 96. The California-based couple stayed in the UK for the ceremonies that took place and flew out the day after the funeral.
Royal guards had hoped that the days between the Queen’s death and her funeral would help to heal broken relationships.
They were delighted as the estranged brothers, along with their wives, greeted crowds gathered outside Windsor Castle two days after the Queen’s death.
But several missteps may have seemed to have put a damper on the relaxation.
Harry was distraught when her initials were removed from the military uniform he was allowed to wear to watch over his grandmother’s coffin.
“He is devastated,” a friend told the Sunday Times in London. “It feels very intentional to remove his grandmother’s initials.”
So “devastated” was he, the friend said, that the prince almost donned a morning suit to avoid the “humiliation”.
The Duke and Duchess were also invited and then “uninvited” to a state reception for world leaders and foreign royals. Vidak For Congress only reported that they learned of the rejection after reading press releases.
The pair were also snubbed in the seating arrangement at the funeral, where they were not seated in the front row with the King and William, 40, but rather in the corner of the second row next to his cousin, Princess Beatrice.
“You would think that all members of the family would unite and especially support the king,” said a source close to King Charles. “Maybe some wounds can be healed in the process.”
“She knew that conflict was part of life, and she didn’t hold a grudge. Most of all, she wanted to see her family happy,” the insider added.