Prince Harry has given a rare update on King Charles III following their first meeting in more than a year and a half, sparking hope that this could be the beginning of healing their fractured relationship.
The Duke of Sussex and his father had not seen one another for 19 months before their reunion on September 10. Harry flew from California to the UK after learning of the King’s cancer diagnosis, marking an important moment for the estranged pair.
A Long-Awaited Meeting
The Duke, who stepped back as a senior working royal in 2020, has rarely met with his father since relocating to the US with Meghan Markle and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Their last encounter came just 24 hours after Charles’s health condition was announced earlier this year.
On Wednesday evening, Harry attended an Invictus Games event at The Gherkin in London, mingling with government ministers and corporate sponsors. Before the event, he spent nearly an hour with his father at Clarence House.
When asked by a reporter how the King was doing, Harry replied: “Yes, he’s great, thank you.”
A Brief but Meaningful Visit
Charlotte Griffiths, editor-at-large at The Mail on Sunday, explained that the meeting was deliberately low-key. “Harry had a meeting in London this morning and then made sure he kept his schedule completely clear so that he could see his father at a moment’s notice,” she told Yahoo!. “It was a last-minute diary plan—it wasn’t in Harry’s diary—but perhaps that’s because he was nervous about leaks. He was prepared to drop everything to see his father and he let that be known to the palace.”
Though the meeting lasted just 54 minutes due to the King’s full schedule and Harry’s own engagement that evening, royal watchers described it as “significant.”
The Question of Trust
Whether this reunion signals the start of a true reconciliation remains uncertain. A source told Vanity Fair: “The King has always left the door open for Harry to come back to Britain. Charles genuinely misses him and it pains him that there is a rift, but the ball is in Harry’s court. If details of their meeting are leaked, then it will be a short-lived reconciliation. The issue of trust is very important to the King, and has been breached in the past. Harry has to prove he can keep the conversations between them private if he wants to really have a relationship with his father.”
A Step Toward Healing
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward told The Sun that the reunion was both “a positive step, but a necessary step.” She explained: “Charles had to see his son at some point. He isn’t going to get any younger, and he wants to meet his grandchildren, as a family man and father. For this entire trip, Harry has been trying very hard to get on everyone’s good side with events and donations.”
She added: “That he is willing to welcome Prince Harry into his home shows Charles’s soft side.”