Prince Harry wants to reconcile ‘complicated relationship’ with brother, father
Prince Harry is opening up about his decision to relocate his family to the United Kingdom while sharing that he hopes to “work out” his disagreements with his brother Prince William and father King Charles III.
In an interview with GQ magazine about grief and family, recorded in New York in late September and published on Tuesday, Harry was asked if he grieves his “complicated relationship” with his father and brother.
“Yes, of course,” he replied, adding that people often ask him about it because it’s a “massively relatable issue for so many people – sibling disagreements, broken relationships between kids and their parents, kids and one parent.”
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“Some people don’t want it to work out — I want it to work out,” he continued. “Of course I do… with everything else that’s going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile — that’s the key point.”
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A spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex clarified his comment about “some people” not wanting this to work out and said it was “absolutely not intended as a swipe at his brother or any other member of his family.”
“The comment was made in a general context and was not directed at his family in any way,” the spokesperson added in a statement to People.
Harry, his wife Meghan and their two children moved back to the U.K. in late August, six years after their decision to leave their roles as working royals and move to California.
In past interviews before their return, the couple had previously accused an unspecified royal of racism and called palace staff insensitive to Meghan’s mental health.
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When asked if he thought he could repair the rift in the family, Harry told GQ: “Look, scars stick around forever, but what your perception is and what your mindset is to those things that have happened, certainly letting go of the past, that’s something that I would encourage everybody to do.”
“If there’s certain things from the past that are still affecting your everyday, that’s harder to let go of. But yeah, for me, there’s enough drama in the world and enough drama in people’s lives than to continue with issues with family,” the Spare author said.
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Harry said that he would like to leave his issues with his family behind.
“What happened back then was then. What’s happened over that over the last six years has been a continuation of that. Some battles that had been fought — and necessarily so,” he continued.
“With everything else that’s going on in the world, there’s aspects of the past that I’m sure all of us — me, my family, and some of the British press — that we’d all like to leave behind us and work for the greater good,” Harry added.
Ahead of his return to the U.K., Harry had expressed an interest in reconciliation with his family so he could spend more time with his father, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer.
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Harry has made public comments about hoping to reconcile, telling the BBC last year, “I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore.”
“There have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family,” he said, adding that he has now “forgiven” them.
“Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has,” he said, referencing King Charles and his 2024 cancer diagnosis. “He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff, but it would be nice to reconcile.”
Harry had placed the blame on the palace for stripping him of his police protection detail on visits to the U.K., and said that was at the “heart” of the family dispute.
Harry told the BBC that his security issues “could be resolved” through his 77-year-old father.
“There is a lot of control and ability in my father’s hands,” Harry told the outlet.
“Ultimately, this whole thing could be resolved through him. Not necessarily by intervening, but by stepping aside, allowing the experts to do what is necessary.”
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Harry’s latest interview comes after he recently opened up about about his move to Canada in late 2019 and the toll it took on his mental health earlier this month.
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In a MasterClass, which is a streaming platform for online learning, the Duke of Sussex said he experienced an “adrenaline crash” after relocating from England to Vancouver Island in 2019.
“It was myself, my wife and our son Archie, and we moved to Canada to get some space away from everything just to be able to think,” Harry said.
“Being in Canada, away from the stressful environment where presumably my body was just pumped full of adrenaline, within two or three days, I experienced this adrenaline crash, something that I’d never experienced before,” Harry continued.
“It was as if I needed stress in order to get the adrenaline to make my brain function because I became useless around the house,” he added.
Harry revealed that he started to struggle with his mental health following the move.
“I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks. I felt like I couldn’t function without the adrenaline,” he shared.
—With files from The Associated Press
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