Queen Elizabeth II’s death could help spark a reconciliation between Prince Harry and his wife Meghan and the rest of the royal family after a reported rift and their relocation to the United States.
The couple, who were on a rare visit to Britain when the queen died on Thursday, were reunited with Harry’s brother William and his wife Kate at Windsor Castle on Saturday. It was their first public appearance together since moving stateside in early 2020.
All dressed in mourning black, they looked together at the banks of flowers left by the audience before greeting well-wishers as separate couples, giving little indication of their relationship status.
But the decision by the quartet — once dubbed “the fab four” in more recent times — to appear in front of the cameras together was seen as a sign of progress in mending much-fractured ties.
UK royal reporters said Crown Prince William offered the “olive branch” to his younger brother, who has been increasingly critical of the family since stepping down from front-line royal duties.
Just two days earlier, it was a different story, with a tearful looking Harry, 37, arriving alone in a vehicle at the Balmoral estate where the Queen had died earlier.
William and several other close family members – but not Kate – had earlier appeared together in a single car, but they also arrived too late to see the Queen before she died.
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said Thursday’s separate arrivals showed the siblings had become “estranged”.
He claimed that Harry and Meghan appeared to be “doing a lot of damage to the royal family in recent months” with their anti-monarchy sides.
“For the future, the ball is in their court and it depends how they want to play,” added Fitzwilliams.
“Different Paths” Once things were so different.
After the princes’ mother Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, they touched the world by walking behind her coffin at her funeral.
William was 15 while Harry was just 12.
They seemed to share a close bond as adults, uninterrupted by William marrying their long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton in 2011 and starting a family.
But relations soured after former British army captain Harry married Meghan — a mixed-American TV actress — in Windsor in 2018.
He said in an interview in 2019 that he and his brother were “on different paths”. A year later, Harry and Meghan dramatically announced their move to the US.
The couple’s subsequent explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 saw Meghan publicly claim that Kate made her cry.
The most damaging claim, however, was that an unnamed royal speculated about the skin color of Meghan’s mixed-race child-to-be.
William later hit back by telling a reporter that the royals were “very much not” a racist family.
Relations between the brothers were visibly frosty when they reunited last year to unveil a statue to their mother.
They did not meet during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June.
Most recently, Meghan told The Cut magazine in a lengthy interview that she now feels “free” to tell her own story, which some have seen as a veiled threat to the monarchy.
‘Unforeseen’ However, since the Queen’s death there have been tell-tale signs of a possible softening of the estrangement.
Despite Harry claiming to Winfrey that his brother and father were “trapped” in the monarchy, Charles appeared open to reconciliation with his self-exiled son in his first speech as Britain’s new king, mainly expressing “love” for him and Megan.
“He’s offering an olive branch, but he’s offering (it) with great care because he knows there are contingencies,” Fitzwilliams said.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are popular with young people but could risk openly criticizing the monarchy, he added, especially during a period of national mourning and beyond.
“There’s no doubt the Sussexes are going to get a lot of attention right now,” Fitzwilliams noted, with British public opinion already firmly on the side of the rest of the family.
Saturday’s joint appearance with William and Kate, who this week became Prince and Princess of Wales after Charles ascended the throne, may herald a new chapter in the family’s relationship.
But with Harry expected to release his potentially controversial memoir by the end of the year, things could also easily go downhill.
“Obviously they will attend the funeral. More than that, it’s impossible to say,” Fitzwilliams said.
“If in Harry’s memoir he’s stopped being judgmental, that’s different.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
