Picture: NARIMAN EL-MOFTY / POOL / AFP
A reconciliation between Prince Harry and the British royal family could take place before the coronation of King Charles III in May, a report said on Saturday, following the publication of his scorching tell-all memoir Spare.
A source close to the king who also knows Harry and his wife Meghan told The Sunday Times they believed a meeting would take place in coming months before the coronation on May 6.
“It’s going to take flexibility on all sides, but it can be done, it’s fixable,” the newspaper quoted the source as saying in a report published on its website.
“It needs Harry over here, in the room with the King and Prince of Wales, a couple of other family members, some of ‘his people’ he trusts who always had his back, so he doesn’t think he’s being ambushed,” the source added.
After months of anticipation and a blanket publicity blitz, Harry’s book Spare went on sale Tuesday, clocking up a record 1.4 million English language sales in its first 24 hours.
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“Both sides need to hold their hands up and admit we didn’t get everything right, and we got a lot wrong, and we have to say to him ‘we understand the pain you’ve been through’. The King can do it,” the source said.
Although the royal family has not commented on the book, the source said Harry’s elder brother, heir to the throne, Prince William was “burning inside” over his sibling’s disloyalty.
“Not everyone here behaved well, but Harry’s got to be able to sit down and say ‘we didn’t behave well either’. That takes a lot of academic flexibility, which Harry isn’t great at,” the source added.
Harry, who accuses his brother in the book of pushing him to the ground in an altercation in 2019, has said he would like to be reconciled with his family but that he needs “accountability” first.
The source said time was now of the essence.
“We’ve got to move on it, and get it done by April. Then, we need to get the wives in. The King needs a clear run for the coronation.”
Another royal source agreed, telling the newspaper, Harry and Meghan – who quit royal life in the UK for California in 2020 – must be invited in before the historic royal event.
If that didn’t happen, the spiralling feud between the brothers would become “a circus and distraction”.
In his blockbuster autobiography, Harry complains bitterly of his treatment as the second son of Charles and the late Princess Diana.
The book also details a string of often petty grievances after he became engaged to Meghan who has also complained she was not supported by the royals.
Public opinion in Britain has swung against Harry in the wake of the book’s publication – in the middle of the country’s most serious cost of living crisis in a generation.
A YouGov survey published in The Times daily found only 24% of people now have a positive view of the prince – down from 80% a decade ago – with 68% critical.
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