Everything Prince Harry has said about King Charles after quitting royal duties
Stepped away from royal duties in 2020 - but are father and son about to reconcile?
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their decision to step back from royal duties in January 2020. But what has Prince Harry said about his father, King Charles, in public since then?
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not mention Charles, then the Prince of Wales, as they told social media users at the time they announced their exit from duties: “After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen. It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment. ”
However, Harry’s relationship with King Charles has been under constant scrutiny since, as has every word the duke has uttered about his relatives.
Royal Insider presents the most comprehensive account of Prince Harry‘s claims, views, and pronouncements on King Charles – including comments made in interviews, TV appearances, and his memoir Spare.
Could father and son reconcile soon if they meet during Prince Harry’s visit to the UK?
What did Prince Harry say about King Charles in the Oprah interview?
In March 2021, following the Sussexes’ one-year probational period away from the royal family, the couple faced their first interview, on US TV. And it was conducted by Oprah Winfrey.
Ahead of time, the royal family received warnings about what secrets may be spilled. The fallout may have been even worse than predicted. The couple claimed a member of the royal family enquired as to “how dark” Prince Archie’s skin might be when he was born.
Additionally, Meghan claimed it was her who was left in tears – not Kate Middleton as previously reported – in the run-up to her May 2018 wedding. The pair reportedly had a disagreement over Kate’s daughter Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress not fitting properly. However, Meghan claimed Kate apologised after and brought her flowers.
Furthermore, the duchess also opened up about suicidal thoughts during her first pregnancy.
Meanwhile, Harry revealed his father “stopped taking [his] calls” in the aftermath of the “Megxit” announcement.
“I feel really let down because he’s been through something similar,” Prince Harry told Oprah. “He knows what pain feels like. And Archie’s his grandson. But at the same time, I will always love him. But there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened. And I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship.”
‘My father and my brother, they are trapped’
Prince Harry also told how his father requested the Sussexes put their royal exit plans in writing.
Prince Harry added of stepping back from royal duties: “I took matters into my own hands. It was like, ‘I need to do this for my family. This is not a surprise to anybody. It’s really sad that it’s got to this point, but I’ve got to do something for my own mental health, my wife’s and for Archie’s as well,’ because I could see where this was headed.”
Having also said he “loves” his brother Prince William “to bits”, Prince Harry made the extraordinary claim he feels his family are stuck in their royal roles. He reflected: “I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped. My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave.”
‘There is a real rift, there is real distance’
While Buckingham Palace did issue a reaction to the Oprah chat, the then-Prince Charles’ reaction was less pronounced. Questioned by a reporter in the days following the interview’s airing, he reportedly chose not to pass comment. He reportedly “chuckled and carried on walking” instead.
However, within weeks, one royal pundit said while contributing to a Channel 5 documentary: “The person who was really knocked to the ground in that interview with several punches was Prince Charles 100 per cent.
“The takeaway from that interview was that there is a real rift, there is real distance, there is real anger.”
Furthermore, the funeral of Prince Philip took place on April 17, just weeks after the Oprah revelations. No doubt a challenging family time may have been made all the tenser due to the Sussexes’ claims.
Writing in his memoir Spare, published in January 2023, about being reunited with his relatives at the funeral, Prince Harry recalled how their father pleaded with he and Prince William: “He stood between us, looking up at our flushed faces: Please boys – don’t make my final years a misery.”
Revelations from Harry & Meghan on Netflix
Prince Harry returned to his interactions with his father and brother at his grandfather’s funeral in the Sussexes’ unprecedented Netflix docuseries.
Harry & Meghan – which dropped on the streaming giant in December 2022, just months after Queen Elizabeth II’s death in the September – saw Prince Harry reflect more on conversations with Prince William and King Charles.
Prince Harry claimed they could not agree on why he and Meghan felt the need to leave the UK.
“None of us really wanted to have to talk about it at my grandfather’s funeral, but we did,” he said on his show.
He went on: “It was hard. Especially spending time having chats with my brother and my father, who were very much focused on the same misinterpretation of the whole situation. And I’ve had to make peace with the fact that we’re probably never gonna get genuine accountability or a genuine apology.”
Charles ‘said things that weren’t true’
With regards to how his father, in late 2019, had requested he put his plans in writing, Prince Harry alleged that the Sussexes’ thoughts about moving to Canada were leaked to the press.
However, Prince Harry did not directly accuse his father of being responsible for the information being passed on and making front page news.
But Harry & Meghan also contained Prince Harry’s shocking assessment of the summit that occurred at Sandringham when he returned to the UK in January 2020.
The meeting between members of the royal family discussed Harry and Meghan’s exit from duties.
Harry claimed of the meeting: “It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that weren’t true and my grandmother quietly sit there and take it all in.”
‘Different to Charles’
In Harry & Meghan, Prince Harry also made mention of how he is “mother’s son” – and the choices men in his family make when it comes to marriage.
He noted: “I think for so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit in the mould. As opposed to someone who perhaps you are destined to be with.”
Prince Harry explained: “The difference between making decisions with your head, or your heart. My mum made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart. And I am my mother’s son.”
He also said it was important he and Meghan didn’t repeat “mistakes” made by their parents.
“I think it’s such a responsibility as human beings that if you bring a small person into this world that you should be doing everything you can to make the world a better place for them,” Prince Harry shared.
“But equally what’s most important for the two of us is to make sure we don’t repeat the same mistakes that perhaps our parents made.”
Without directly suggesting this was his experience, Prince Harry added: “I think most kids who are the product of divorced parents have a lot in common, no matter what your background is. Being pulled from one place to the other, or maybe your parents are competitive. Or you’re in one place longer than you want to be and in another less than you want to be. There’s all sorts of pieces to that.”
Charles’ roles at Harry and Meghan’s wedding
King Charles memorably walked Meghan down the aisle for her and Prince Harry’s nuptials. But, as his son revealed in Harry & Meghan, he also had a hand with other aspects of the big day.
“My father helped us choose an orchestra, which made all the difference,” Prince Harry said. Furthermore, he also assisted with the selection of the choir. One particular piece of music was performed at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
“More help from my dad on that one,” Prince Harry said of the gospel performers in the Kingdom Choir who sang Stand By Me.
Warning to Harry
Meanwhile, Harry & Meghan also saw Prince Harry share advice he claimed to have received from his father.
“My dad said to me, ‘Darling boy, you can’t take on the media. The media will always be the media,'” Prince Harry claimed. He continued, revealing his own response: “I said: ‘I disagree.'”
Harry: The Interview on ITV
In the days running up to Spare’s release in January 2023, extracts from Prince Harry’s memoir began appearing in the press. He also went on a media blitz with telly interviews recorded for ITV, 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper, a Good Morning America special titled Prince Harry: In His Own Words, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the US.
During the course of their chat ITV News anchor Tom Bradby asked Prince Harry whether he intended to attend his father’s coronation.
“If you are invited to the coronation, will you come?” the journalist enquired.
“There’s a lot that can happen between now and then,” Harry replied. “But, the door is always open. The ball is in their court. There’s a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they’re willing to sit down and talk about it.”
‘I love my father’
At another point during the interview, Prince Harry said: “[I] love my father, I love my brother. I love my family – I will always do. Nothing of what I’ve done in this book or otherwise has ever been to any intention to harm them or hurt them.”
However, he added, without naming names, that members of his family had “decided to get in bed with the devil,” referring to the press.
Prince Harry also reflected on how his father adapted to being a single parent after Princess Diana died in August 1997.
“Pa was never made for that. To be fair, he tried,” Prince Harry said.
And on making up with his father and family, Prince Harry said: “Forgiveness is 100% a possibility because I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back.”
‘We haven’t spoken for quite a while’
When appearing on 60 Minutes, Prince Harry was asked whether he was currently in contact with his father. Prince Harry admitted: “We aren’t. We haven’t spoken for quite a while.”
Prince Harry went on: “I look forward to having a relationship with my brother. I look forward to having a relationship with my father and other members of my family. That’s all I’ve ever asked for.”
Meanwhile, the Good Morning America appearance saw Prince Harry accept “without question” that he shouldered some of the responsibility for the breakdown of his family relationships. However, he added: “What people don’t know is the efforts that I’ve gone to [in order] to resolve this privately. Both with my brother and with my father.”
Spare revelations: ‘Please don’t marry her’
The accusations and bombshells in Spare itself came thick and fast within the pages of Prince Harry’s book. Among them was the claim he and his brother “begged” their father not to marry Camilla.
Writing in Spare, Harry claimed that he and William told their father: “We support you, we said. We endorse Camilla, we said. ‘Just please don’t marry her. Just be together, Pa.’ He didn’t answer. But she answered. Straight away. Shortly after our private summits with her, she began to play the long game, a campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the Crown (with Pa’s blessing, we presumed).”
Heartbreakingly, Prince Harry also recalled the moment he was informed his mother had been involved in the fateful car crash in Paris. He described his father waking him to deliver the sad news. But he also claimed his father did not hug him.
Furthermore, Prince Harry also revealed the jarring meaning behind his memoir’s title and his perceived status within his family.
According to the duke, he was 20 when he found out his father allegedly commented to Prince Harry’s mother following his birth: “Wonderful. You have given me an heir and a spare. You have done your job.”
‘Don’t ever speak about my wife that way’
Prince Harry also opened up about what sounds like an emotional exchange with his father King Charles on the day the late Queen Elizabeth II died.
Harry said he rushed to Scotland to be with his grandmother in her final hours. But, he claimed he was told by his father not to bring Meghan with him to Balmoral.
Prince Harry claims he responded: “Don’t ever speak about my wife that way.”
Reaction to King Charles cancer diagnosis
Days after the news of King Charles’ cancer diagnosis emerged in February 2024, Prince Harry visited his father. According to reports, the meeting at Clarence House lasted for less than an hour. Prince Harry then flew back to California.
“I jumped on a plane and went to go see him as soon as I could,” he recounted to Good Morning America.
Prince Harry added at the time: “The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see [my father] and spend any time with him. I’m grateful for this.”
He also indicated the king’s condition could help bring the family together.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Prince Harry said. “Throughout all these families, I see it on a day-to-day basis, the strength of the family unit coming together. I think any illness, any sickness, brings families together.”
Prince Harry ‘would love a reconciliation’
Fast forward to May 2025. Prince Harry’s comments in an interview with the BBC seemed to indicate he wanted to reach a detente with his family.
According to reports, the father and son did not speak while Prince Harry’s legal action concerning taxpayer-funded armed police bodyguards in the UK played out.
But once proceedings concluded, Prince Harry seemed to reach out to his allegedly estranged relatives.
“I would love a reconciliation with my family,” he said at the time. “I don’t know how much longer my father has. He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff. But it would be nice to reconcile.”
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