Will Princes Harry and William get back together after years of tearing each other apart? The Duke of Sussex's arrival in London on Tuesday to greet Charles III, who is suffering from cancer. visiting raises hopes of reconciliation within the royal family.
• Also read: Charles III appears smiling the day after he announced he had cancer
• Also read: Prince Harry in London after King Charles III's cancer
• Also read: The Cancer of King Charles III was “recognized early,” says Prime Minister
The king's youngest son left Los Angeles in the hours following the shocking news that his father had been diagnosed with cancer during his prostate surgery about ten days ago.
He arrived at Heathrow Airport in London at midday on Tuesday, from where he went to Clarence House, the monarch's London residence near Buckingham Palace.
However, the visit to his father was short-lived as the King and Queen Camilla were seen leaving Clarence House in a car less than 45 minutes later.
As with his quick visit on the occasion of Charles' coronation in May, Prince Harry traveled alone from California, without his wife Meghan and their two children Archie and Lilibet, in a dispute with his father and especially with his brother William.
“Is it time for Harry to return home?” asked the tabloid The Mirror on Tuesday, which like most British newspapers devoted long articles to a possible reconciliation between the Windsors at a difficult time for the monarchy. British.
After meeting his father, will Harry also meet William and his wife Kate?
The princess is recovering after abdominal surgery, for which she was hospitalized for 13 days before recovery was scheduled to last until at least Easter.
“While Charles is torn by the conflict between his sons and hopes for a rapprochement, William is convinced that trust (…) has completely broken down,” royal commentator Richard Kay said in the Chron.
The king continued to express his affection for his youngest son, for example expressing his “love” for him in his speech the day after the death of Elizabeth II in September 2022.
But his brother apparently couldn't handle the harsh criticism he received in Harry's autobiography, The Substitute, which was published a few months later.
The Duke of Sussex is particularly critical of his eldest, whom he describes as angry, and tells of his pain at having been his “shadow, (his) understudy, (his) Plan B” all his life. It also implies that William did not marry his wife Kate for love.
Broken dialogue
The last time the princes appeared together was in September 2022, at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, and according to Richard Kay, William and Harry have “not exchanged a word” in months.
And according to British media on Tuesday, no meeting between the two brothers is planned during Harry's stay in the United Kingdom.
Before the book's publication, the relationship between Lady Di's two sons, which had been very close in the past, had already deteriorated profoundly, with tensions and conflicts set against a backdrop of constant pressure from the British tabloid press.
The American couple Harry and Meghan finally slammed the door on the royal family and renounced their obligations. He moved to the USA in 2020 and sharply criticized the British monarchy in interviews and a documentary series on Netflix.
During an interview with famous American presenter Oprah Winfrey, they also claimed that members of the royal family wondered what skin color their son Archie would have before his birth.
The prince returned to Britain twice last year: for his father's coronation and in June for one of the trials in which he took on the British tabloids against which he is waging a legal war.
Despite the distance that has formed between the brothers, “the royal family, like any other family, must stick together in the face of the ordeal of cancer,” and a rapprochement, albeit tentative, could take place in the coming weeks, estimates the royal family expert Richard Fitzwilliams, interviewed by AFP.
“The only thing they have in common is their love for their 'darling dad', the only parent they have left,” Camilla Tominey, another monarchy expert, also told the Telegraph.