Queen Elizabeth II never gave up hope that Prince Harry would reconcile with his family.
“The Queen adored Harry right to the end, and Harry adored her,” royal author Robert Hardman told People in an article published on Friday. “I think she was one of the conduits between Windsor and California and it would have been one of her dearest wishes that they patch things up.”
As many know, Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have been distant from the family since they announced in January 2020 that they no longer wanted to be working royals. They went on to settle in Montecito, Calif.
Harry’s frayed 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 pity that his father and brother, Prince William, were “trapped” in their royal roles.
In the same interview, Markle tearfully claimed that she had contemplated suicide while pregnant with their son, Archie, due to the pressure of dealing with life as a royal and her treatment at the hands of the British media.
The Duchess says she went to a senior member of the Palace for help and was rebuffed.
The “Suits” alum, 41, also recently gave another controversial interview in which she claimed that “just by existing,” she and Harry were “upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been in Europe for several charitable events when Queen Elizabeth died at age 96 on Sept. 8. The California-based couple stayed in the U.K. for the ceremonies that proceeded and flew out the day after the funeral.
Royal watchers had hoped the days between the Queen’s death and her funeral would help heal fractured relationships.
They were thrilled when the estranged brothers, along with their wives, greeted crowds gathered outside Windsor Castle, two days after the Queen’s passing.
But several missteps seemed to have perhaps put a damper on any détente.
Harry was distraught when the military uniform he was allowed to wear to stand vigil by his grandmother’s casket had her initials removed.
“He is heartbroken,” a friend told the Sunday Times of London. “To remove his grandmother’s initials feels very intentional.”
So “devastated” was he, the friend said, that the prince nearly donned a morning suit to avoid the “humiliation.”
The Duke and Duchess were also invited and then “uninvited” from a state reception for world leaders and foreign royals. Page Six exclusively reported that they learned of the disinvite after reading press reports.
The couple was also snubbed in the seating arrangement at the funeral, where they did not sit 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’d think that all members of the family would unite and support the King, especially,” a source close to King Charles said. “Perhaps some wounds can be healed in the process.”
“She knew that conflicts were a part of life, and she didn’t hold grudges. Most of all, she wanted to see her family happy,” the insider added.
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