Prince Harry wore a brave face during King Charles and Queen Camilla’s coronation, but unfortunately, it did not result in a happy outcome for the House of Windsor.
The Duke of Sussex attended the momentous event alone and was seated several rows behind his brother, Prince William.
While many were optimistic that the coronation would reconcile the two feuding brothers, reports suggest that they remain estranged since Harry’s departure from royal duties in 2020. At the ceremony, the brothers did not speak or acknowledge each other, and after the event, Harry promptly returned to his residence in California with his wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
“As Harry watched his father being crowned and his brother pledging his allegiance to the new king with a kiss on the cheek, he must have felt the slightest tinge of regret,” Christopher Andersen, author of “The King,” told Fox News Digital. “Frankly, to keep his sanity, he has to keep telling himself he made the right decision by bailing on the royal family.”
“Harry appeared to have no interaction with King Charles, Queen Camilla or William and [his wife] Kate [Middleton],” Andersen shared. “For his part, William seemed not at all interested in acknowledging his brother and vice versa – that is how broken this relationship is. The U. K. still holds a great deal of affection for Harry, and I’m sure the people would love to see him back in the royal fold. It just seems sad that at a time when his countrymen and women are celebrating his father’s coronation, Harry could not wait to hop on a plane and get back to Montecito.”
“There were no signs of reconciliation – everyone seems to have dug in,” Andersen added.
After announcing their decision to step back from their roles as senior royals, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have frequently expressed their grievances. Most recently, Harry revealed the details of his struggles with royal life, the loss of his mother Princess Diana, and his strained relationship with his brother William, who is next in line for the throne, in his explosive memoir titled “Spare.”
In the book, Harry alleged that William had called Markle “difficult” and “rude” during an argument in 2019 and had physically assaulted him by grabbing him by the collar, causing him to fall on a dog bowl and sustain cuts and bruises. Harry also claimed that their father, Charles, had urged them to reconcile, and even their grandfather, Prince Philip, had begged them not to make his final years miserable.
Neither Buckingham Palace nor William’s Kensington Palace office commented on the allegations. However, according to British broadcaster and royal expert Ian Pelham Turner, the tension between the brothers was evident during a recent ceremony.
“Great Britain cannot afford to have a royal family which is fragmented and not representing the true values of the people,” Turner explained. “… In my opinion, it is not [William and Harry’s] right to behave in such a dishonorable way.”
“It is said by many experts that King Charles is too weak to deal with the situation, that this cannot be resolved,” Turner said. “It will be resolved if the people of Great Britain turn their backs on the new king and show the [same] disdain … currently being played out in the public arena by the two brothers.”
“In my opinion, William and Harry are playing with fire, which could erupt the whole house of Windsor in flames,” he added.
In her book “The New Royals,” author and royal expert Katie Nicholl disclosed that Queen Elizabeth II, who has since passed away, was reportedly deeply hurt by Harry’s choice to depart from his family and the country. Charles ascended to the throne after his mother’s demise in September 2022, at the age of 96.
“According to a friend, privately the queen confided that she was exhausted by the turmoil of their decision,” Nicholl wrote. “She was very hurt and told me, ‘I don’t know, I don’t care, and I don’t want to think about it anymore,’ says that person.”
“It was a source of sadness to the queen that she got to see so little of Archie and Lilibet and that Harry and Meghan were not able to join her for a weekend at Balmoral in August [2022] when the queen used to host a ‘sleepover’ for all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Nicholl said.
