Prince Harry says he wants to reconcile but King Charles won’t speak to him

Harry, who quit the British royal family in 2020, says he doesn’t speak to his father amid row over his security detail.

The United Kingdom’s Prince Harry has said he wants to reconcile with his family, but his father, King Charles III, will not speak to him amid a row over his security detail, as the fallout from his quitting the British royal family in 2020 continues.

In an interview with the BBC on Friday, Harry, who moved to the United States with his wife, Meghan, said he did not think he would be able to bring his family back to the UK.

The interview aired just hours after Harry lost a legal battle to try to restore his full police protection when visiting the UK.

“I would love reconciliation with my family,” the prince said. “Life is precious. 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.”

Buckingham Palace revealed last year that Charles was diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer, although aides have been upbeat about how his treatment is progressing.

In response to Harry’s interview, Buckingham Palace released a statement, saying, “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”

London’s Court of Appeal earlier rejected Harry’s attempt to overturn a 2020 decision by the Home Office, the ministry responsible for policing, that said he would not automatically receive personal police protection in the UK.

Three judges on the appellate court ruled unanimously that the government’s decision was not unreasonable.

Prince Harry arrives for the coronation of King Charles at Westminster Abbey, London, May 6, 2023 [Andy Stenning/Pool via Reuters]

Justice Geoffrey Vos acknowledged in a 21-page judgement that Harry felt badly treated and his lawyer had made powerful and moving arguments on his behalf. But he said that the prince’s grievance was not legal grounds to challenge the decision to deny him regular security.

“From the Duke of Sussex’s point of view, something may indeed have gone wrong, in that an unintended consequence of his decision to step back from royal duties and spend the majority of his time abroad has been that he has been provided with a more bespoke, and generally lesser, level of protection than when he was in the UK,” Vos said.

“But that does not, of itself, give rise to a legal complaint.”

In his interview with the BBC, Harry called Friday’s ruling a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up” and accused the Royal Household of influencing the decision.

He said the security issue had been “used as leverage” to control him and urged his father and the government to help. “There is a lot of control and ability in my father’s hands,” said the prince, also known as the duke of Sussex.

“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.”

Harry, 40, the younger son of Charles and the late Princess Diana, has bucked royal family convention by taking the government and tabloid press to court.

Since quitting the royal family, both he and his wife Meghan have been highly critical of the royals in TV documentaries, an explosive interview with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey, and most notably in Harry’s biography, Spare.