Prince William has expressed his understanding of the idea of his father, King Charles, and Prince Harry reuniting, but says he has no plans to reunite with his estranged brother.
“Prince William probably understands why his father did it, even if he didn’t do it himself,” royal expert Kinsey Schofield theorized to Page Six.
“While he believes Prince Harry has not regained the trust of his family, he can understand that a father living with cancer would want to see his son and grandson.”
Schofield continued that the future king’s “priority” is “to protect the institutions that he will one day inherit.”
“In his mind, it wasn’t about whether Harry was family; it was about whether he could trust Harry,” she said. “That question cannot be answered in one afternoon at Highgrove. King Charles has time to think about his legacy. Prince William has to think about longevity.”
On Friday, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Prince Charles and Queen Camilla had invited Prince Harry, Duchess Meghan and their children – Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, to visit Highgrove House. It has been four years since Charles, 77, has seen his grandchildren.
Schofield believes that even if they are reunited, “the past will not be erased.”
“It doesn’t mean the Palace should forget everything that happened over the past six years,” she theorized. “A father can forgive. A monarch must protect the king after all. … One meeting is easy. Rebuilding trust is very difficult.”
William, 44, avoided his brother during a trip to the UK and made separate public appearances just a few miles apart on July 7.
The future king visited the London Welsh School, Ysgol Gymraeg Rundyne, on Tuesday, while Prince Harry, 41, attended the 14th Invictus Games Foundation Conversation: From Policy to Practice held at Chatham House on the same day.
The brothers have been estranged for years. Prince Harry opened up about their feud in his 2023 memoir, Spare.
In the book, Harry claimed to have been blessed with an older brother growing up. She also wrote about an alleged argument after Prince William called her sister-in-law Markle “difficult,” “rude” and “nasty.”
“It all happened so quickly,” Harry wrote. “It was very fast. He grabbed me around the chest, tore off my necklace, and slammed me to the floor.”
Prince Harry, who resigned from royal duties in 2020 and moved his family to Montecito, California, was denied taxpayer-funded security and initially arrived in the UK alone.
Page Six confirmed Thursday that the As Ever founder and his children would be traveling, but they had no plans to make any public appearances as a family. No photos of Charles’ reunion with Camilla have been released.
During the trip, a British High Court judge ruled against Harry and six other plaintiffs. They sued Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, for invasion of privacy because it failed to provide sufficient evidence that the articles were obtained illegally.
Page Six reported that the legal battle resulted in $67 million being returned.
