{"id":108001,"date":"2026-08-21T07:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T07:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108001\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T07:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T07:49:11","slug":"a-question-looms-over-harrys-return-to-the-uk-can-he-rebuild-his-relationship-with-prince-william-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108001\/","title":{"rendered":"A question looms over Harry’s return to the UK. Can he rebuild his relationship with Prince William?"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON — The royal family\u2019s long-running American soap opera is returning to Britain.<\/a> The question is whether it will blossom into a happy reunion or descend into anger, division and chaos.<\/p>\n

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, plan to return<\/a> to the United Kingdom from California in a matter of weeks. They have already enrolled their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, in British schools so they can start the autumn term with their classmates.<\/p>\n

News of the surprise decision, which broke late Wednesday in stories published by the Telegraph and Sun newspapers, has sparked widespread discussion about where the couple will live, who will pay for their security and whether they will return to royal duties one day.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most difficult issue is whether Harry<\/a> can repair his once-close relationship with Prince William, the heir to the throne, which was decimated by Harry\u2019s very public complaints of mistreatment at the hands of Buckingham Palace staff, racism in the royal family and the failings of the monarchy. There are also concerns that Harry and Meghan could try to upstage William and his wife Catherine, when they once again share the British stage.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be something for the palace to deal with \u2026\u201d Craig Prescott, an expert on the U.K. constitution and the monarchy at Royal Holloway University of London, told The Associated Press. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t want Meghan and Harry\u2019s presence in the U.K. here to overshadow the work of the monarchy, and there will have to be some discussion and allowance for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple are expected to live at a private, nonroyal residence outside of London and they won\u2019t resume their royal duties, which they gave up when they moved to the exclusive Southern California community of Montecito six years ago, British media reported late Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Their return to the U.K. comes as King Charles III, Harry\u2019s 77-year-old father, continues to undergo treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer that was discovered in 2024. The prince said last year that he didn\u2019t know \u201chow much time my father has left,\u201d and has expressed a desire for his children to have a chance to get to know their grandfather.<\/p>\n

While Harry and Meghan\u2019s decision is a surprise to many, royal historian Ed Owens said recent events created a pathway for the couple’s return.<\/p>\n

First, Harry spoke of his desire for reconciliation, then there was the apparently successful meeting between the king, his younger son and daughter-in-law<\/a> and their children last month at Charles\u2019 Highgrove estate in western England. In addition, there is Harry\u2019s stated desire for his children to grow up British and that the U.K. looks like a safer place to be right now, given the divisions in American society, said Owens, author of \u201cAfter Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Owens said he expects Charles to forgive Harry because as the supreme governor of the Church of England he has to demonstrate the teachings of Christianity, including the virtue of forgiveness. <\/p>\n

William may find forgiving his brother more difficult, but someday he too will become head of the church, Owens said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be that privately William never fully forgives his younger brother for what he deems the betrayal of the family,\u201d Owens told The AP. \u201cBut publicly,\u201d he will, \u201cbecause for traditional moralists, traditional Christian values, they demand that there is this public act of forgiveness, that there\u2019s reconciliation between the brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles was informed of Harry and Meghan\u2019s plans on Sunday and the matter wasn\u2019t discussed during their recent visit<\/a> to the U.K.<\/p>\n

Relations between Harry and Meghan and the rest of the royal family have been strained since the couple gave up their royal duties and moved to California in 2020 to earn their own living. The couple later signed lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify.<\/p>\n

The rift deepened after the couple gave a series of interviews and Harry published his explosive memoir \u201cSpare,\u201d<\/a> in which he said they left Britain to escape the restrictions of royal life. The couple also criticized palace officials for being insensitive to Meghan\u2019s mental health and alleged at least one member of the royal family had expressed racist views when she was pregnant with their first child. Meghan describes herself as biracial.<\/p>\n

Oprah Winfrey asked Harry to summarize his reasons for leaving Britain in a 2021 interview that was broadcast around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cLack of support and lack of understanding,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

Those tensions were exacerbated by Harry\u2019s long-running legal battle with Britain\u2019s tabloid newspapers, which he alleges illegally hacked his phones and invaded his privacy when he was younger. The courtroom drama seemed to be nearing an end after Harry and other plaintiffs lost their lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail last month. <\/p>\n

That case left Harry facing a potential bill for millions of pounds after the court ruled the plaintiffs were liable for the publisher\u2019s legal fees. Associated Newspapers has filed documents showing that its costs amounted to 34.5 million pounds ($47 million). <\/p>\n

Harry has also been embroiled in a legal wrangle with the British government after a government committee refused to authorize police protection for him and his family when they are in the U.K. The prince says they need armed police protection because they are at risk as members of the royal family, regardless of whether they are working royals.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s security arrangements are a \u201cprivate matter\u201d for Harry and Meghan to deal with, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said when asked about the issue on Thursday.<\/p>\n

After Harry lost his court challenge of the committee\u2019s decision<\/a> in May 2025, the prince said he hoped to reconcile with his family while continuing to vent his anger at those in Britain he feels have mistreated him and his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point,\u201d he told the BBC at the time. \u201cAnd the things that they\u2019re going to miss is, well, everything. You know, I love my country. I always have done, despite what some people in that country have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although much of the media attention on Harry and Meghan has focused on family tensions and recriminations in recent years, Owens suggested that the story may now shift to the royal\u2019s efforts to rebuild family harmony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think time is a great healer. It creates space in a social media-saturated world,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are always looking for the next thing to talk about and, arguably, that will be reconciliation between first of all father and son, and then potentially the two brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON — The royal family\u2019s long-running American soap opera is returning to Britain. The question is whether it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[103,44,424,5809,5,6,46],"class_list":["post-108001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-royalty","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117132405125470716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}