Prince Harry’s four-day visit to the U.K. this September felt unlike any he’s made since stepping back from royal life five years ago. Traveling solo, with his wife Meghan Markle and their children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, remaining in Montecito, Calif., he threw himself into public engagements with a palpable enthusiasm. At the WellChild Awards in London on Sept. 8, he crouched to greet children, wrapped families in hugs and cracked jokes with ease. In Nottingham the next day, he danced into a room at the Community Recording Studio, laughing and bantering with young activists. “He’s still the same person,” said CRS’s Trevor Rose. “He wants to feel the energy here. He cares — and that’s the main thing.”
It was a far cry from the Harry, 41, seen on recent visits, when court appearances and legal battles overshadowed everything else. This was not the Duke of Sussex under scrutiny, but the Harry people remembered — approachable, playful, in his element. And on the rainy afternoon of Sept. 10, that same energy carried him through the gates of Clarence House, where he disappeared inside for a long-awaited, private meeting with his father, King Charles. Fifty-three minutes later, he emerged — a historic and emotional encounter behind him, and the fragile possibility of reconciliation ahead.
“It’s a massive step in the right direction,” Queen Elizabeth’s former spokeswoman Ailsa Anderson tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “It’s a building of trust.”
Prince Harry arriving at Clarence House on Sept. 10, 2025.
Ben Montgomery/Getty
For more than 19 months, father and son had been estranged, their relationship strained by years of public disputes and private hurt. This first face-to-face meeting was more than a photo-op; it was a chance to begin mending a fractured bond. At stake wasn’t just Harry’s connection with his father, Charles, but also his relationship with his brother Prince William, which remains a thorny and unresolved part of the family story. While the encounter marked a hopeful step forward, royal insiders caution that a long road lies ahead before full reconciliation can take place.
“It shows the way forward,” acknowledges an insider with ties to both sides. “It is a good starting point.”
Harry had returned to Britain several times since last seeing his father in February 2024, just after the King announced his cancer diagnosis. That meeting had been brief — less than 30 minutes — and communication had deteriorated ever since. In May, hours after losing his legal battle with the U.K. government over the removal of his official, all-encompassing security, Harry made blunt public comments about how the King wouldn’t speak to him, even saying he had no idea “how much longer my father has.” Those remarks stung many in the U.K. — both inside and outside the palace.
The first signs of movement emerged in July, when Harry’s new communications team met with Charles’s senior aide. “It’s always better to be talking,” one insider said. But given the deeply entrenched family tensions, progress was slow. On Sept. 10, the opportunity finally presented itself: both Harry and Charles were in London, with a few hours between engagements. Charles arrived from Balmoral Castle, in Scotland and carried out some official duties, while Harry, finishing a visit supporting those with blast injuries, made a detour to Clarence House. Neither team commented on the discussion beyond confirming they shared tea together.
Prince Harry attends the inaugural “Invictus Horizons” reception on Sept. 10, 2025.
Tim P. Whitby/Getty
Harry’s brief but telling words at his next outing offered a hint of how their sit-down went. Racing in late just moments after seeing his father, he told a reporter who asked how the King was, “Yes, he’s great, thank you.” Guests noted his buoyant mood. “He was in very good spirits,” one says. “He was on great form.”
Two days later, on a secretly arranged trip to Kyiv with his Invictus Games Foundation, Harry reflected on the year ahead, telling The Guardian: “The focus really has to be on my dad.” Yet when pressed about his past revelations in interviews and his memoir Spare, he stood firm: “My conscience is clear.”
King Charles arrived at Clarence House almost two hours before the meeting with Harry on Sept. 10, 2025.
Belinda Jiao/Getty
Close observers of the family dynamic will be paying careful attention to what happens next. Much of the focus will be on whether Harry chooses to speak publicly about the meeting with his father.
“If we hear nothing, there will be another meeting. If we hear something, it will be a very long time before there is one,” says Robert Hardman, author of The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, tempering much of the excitement.
Adds historian Robert Lacey: “It is going to have to be handled with care, as the palace sees it, for the foreseeable future. There’s no reason why, in theory, everything should be on an even keel, but it could go the other way, too.”
King Charles and Prince Harry; Queen Camilla.
DAVID ROSE/POOL/AFP/Getty; Aaron Chown/WPA Pool/Getty
Understanding appears to be building, however. The last time father and son met, just after Charles announced his cancer diagnosis, Queen Camilla had been in the room with them — but she did not accompany her husband to London for this trip.
“The fact that Camilla wasn’t there – when she was before — would show that Harry has signaled something to him that he could be trusted one-on-one,” royal author Sally Bedell Smith points out.
For Charles, who is still undergoing treatment for an undisclosed cancer, repairing relations could eventually pave the way for more time with his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet — whom he hasn’t seen in more than three years. “Harry seems to be doing the right things at the moment to try and mend bridges and that’s the most important thing for everybody – and for those grandchildren their grandfather has [rarely] met,” a source close to the royal household says.
When asked if he’ll ever bring his children to the U.K. despite his security concerns, Harry told The Guardian on Sept. 12: “Yes, I would. This week has definitely brought that closer.”
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Prince Harry at the WellChild Awards on Sept. 8, 2025.
Aaron Chown – Pool/Getty
The bigger, ongoing hurdle for Harry remains reconnecting with his brother William, Princess Kate, both 43, and their three children. “The physical meeting for father and son augurs well for the future. It provides a forum for which one may hope that father and brothers may meet,” Lacey, author of Battle of Brothers, says.
The fraternal fissure is especially painful for those who know the princes, whose mother, Princess Diana, died in August 1997. Adds Anderson, “They were so close growing up, both affected by huge tragedy, and had that shared experience that it is just devastating. For William’s children and Harry’s as well, not knowing their cousins is hugely upsetting.”
Kate Middleton and Prince William on Sept. 8, 2025.
ALASTAIR GRANT/POOL/AFP via Getty
Family remains at the heart of the institution, with the world watching to see whether father and son — and the two brothers — can rebuild their bonds.
“Whatever has gone on in the past, it is good to see the family trying to repair itself or communicate at least,” a source with close ties to the palace says. “Everyone has to have compassion for all sides.”
Adds Lacey, “The royal family is a family that people can learn from — both from their mistakes and when they get things right. Here is an example of how families can try to reconcile. A lot of people will be seeing the relevance of this in their own lives.”