An emotional Prince Harry has opened up about how he wants to reconcile with the Royal Family, but claims the King “won’t speak to me”.
The prince told the BBC that the current rift was caused by the legal battle over the security he receives while in the UK.
He has lost an appeal over the decision to remove his taxpayer-funded protection – but how did the prince’s relationship with his family get to this point?
Here are the key moments:
January 2020 – The Sussexes announce the bombshell decision that they plan to step back as senior members of the Royal Family and split their time between the UK and US.
February 2021 – Harry and Meghan tell the Queen they will not return as working members of the family. Buckingham Palace says the royals are “saddened by their decision” but the couple “remain much-loved members of the family”.
March 2021 – The couple sensationally tell Oprah Winfrey that one unnamed royal had raised “concerns” about what colour their son’s skin might be.
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Prince Harry wants ‘reconciliation’ with Royal Family but says King ‘won’t speak to me’
April 2021 – Harry and William are pictured together at Prince Philip’s funeral despite reports their relationship is increasingly strained.
May 2021 – The Duke of Sussex accuses the Royal Family of “total neglect” in a documentary about mental health.
He tells Oprah Winfrey about the strain of him and Meghan being attacked and harassed by the press.
The duke says: “I felt completely helpless. I thought my family would help – but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, just got met with total silence or total neglect.”
July 2021 – William and Harry put aside their differences and appear together again as they unveil a statue of their mother on what would have been her 60th birthday.
December 2022 – Prince Harry says in an episode of the couple’s Netflix documentary that there is a “huge level of unconscious bias” in the Royal Family.
“In this family, sometimes you are part of the problem rather than part of the solution,” he says.
January 2023 – “I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back,” Prince Harry tells ITV’s Tom Bradby.
He also says “silence is betrayal” over the alleged failure of the palace to defend him and Meghan.
Harry describes William allegedly seeing a “red mist” during a fight between the pair and accuses unnamed royals of getting in “bed with the devil” over their links with the tabloids.
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The duke also tells ITV he doesn’t have “any intention to harm” or “hurt” his brother or King Charles with his book Spare, which is released in the same month.
Among the book’s claims is that the King told Harry and Meghan not to go to Balmoral after the Queen’s death – and that the brothers had urged the King not to marry Camilla.
In a US interview the same month, Harry says he’s “stunned” the Royal Family allowed his security to be taken away – “especially at the most vulnerable point for us”.
The duke also admits some of the responsibility for the breakdown of his relationship with William is “without question” his – but that he’s tried hard to mend things in private.
March 2023 – Prince Harry claims the Royal Family withheld information from him about phone hacking because it would “open a can of worms”.
He makes the allegation in a written statement as part of his case against newspaper publishers.
February 2024 – The duke flies in to see his father after the King reveals he has cancer, spending 45 minutes with him at Clarence House.
He breaks his silence on the diagnosis later in the month when he suggests it could lead to their reconciliation and says he loves his family.
“The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that,” he tells Good Morning America.
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April 2024 – The prince loses an initial bid to appeal against a court ruling over his security in the UK.
His lawyers had argued that he was “singled out” and treated “less favourably” in the decision to remove the protection.
May 2024 – Harry is back in the UK for an Invictus Games event but the duke’s spokesperson says the King is too busy to see Prince Harry.
“The duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon,” a statement adds.
June 2024 – Prince Harry gets the green light to appeal over the decision to remove his security.
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May 2025 – The duke ultimately loses the long-running case.
The appeal court says Harry’s arguments are “powerful and moving” but do not “translate into a legal argument”.
The prince releases a lengthy statement attacking the “secretive” RAVEC committee that made the decision to remove his security.
He calls it a “reckless action knowingly put me and my family in harm’s way” and claims it “all comes from the same institutions that preyed upon my mother”.
A Buckingham Palace statement says: “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”
Speaking to BBC News, Harry reveals: “Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has, he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff. It would be nice to reconcile.”
