When Harry met Charles: Is a big royal patch-up in the making?

Britain’s Prince Harry met his father, King Charles III, at Clarence House in London on Wednesday (September 10), the first such face-to-face meeting between them in 19 months.

The Duke of Sussex reunited with his father amid the UK royal family’s rift. Their meeting has raised speculations about a possible reconciliation between Harry and his family. Is it possible, though?

Let’s take a closer look.

King Charles-Harry meet

British King Charles had a private tea with his son, Prince Harry, at the royal residence in London, Buckingham Palace confirmed.

The meeting, which came during Harry’s four-day trip to the United Kingdom, lasted for about 50 minutes.

The Duke of Sussex was spotted being driven through the gates of Clarence House in a black Range Rover around 5.20 pm BST (9.50 PM IST) on Wednesday. He left within an hour, reported CNN.

When asked about the meeting, Prince Harry said of the monarch, “Yes, he’s great, thank you.”

King Charles had been in Scotland at the Balmoral estate, where he is spending the summer. He travelled to London on Wednesday afternoon to carry out several official duties, including holding talks with Peter Malinauskas, the Premier of South Australia.

Prince Harry was on a four-day visit to the UK for a series of charity engagements. On Wednesday, he visited Imperial College London’s Centre for Blast Injury Studies, greeting fans who were waiting outside as he left. Shaking hands and clicking selfies, the Duke of Sussex excused himself by saying, “I have to go, I’m so late… I’ve got to go, I’ve got to go. Nice to meet you guys,” according to the Daily Mail.

The last time Harry and Charles were together was in February 2024, when the duke flew to Britain for a 30-minute meeting after the King’s cancer diagnosis.

Rift between Prince Harry and UK royal family

Tensions escalated between Prince Harry and the British royal family after Prince Harry stepped down as a senior working royal, along with his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2020. The couple moved to California to launch several media ventures and charitable work.

After this, Harry’s protection was downgraded from full-time while he was in the UK to being considered on a case-by-case basis. Harry lost an appeal in court this year to overturn the decision.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Harry and Meghan alleged a member of the family had expressed concerns about the skin tone of their first child, Prince Archie, before he was born.

Harry, in his controversial memoir, Spare, made wild accusations about his family. He alleged that his brother, Prince William, had physically attacked him during an argument over Meghan.

He also claimed that his brother and his wife, Kate, encouraged him to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party in 2005 and “howled” with laughter when they saw it.

Harry told the BBC in an interview in May that his father had not been speaking to him due to his legal battle with the UK Home Office.

People close to Prince Harry told PEOPLE that King Charles was avoiding his calls and not replying to his messages.

Is a family reunion on the cards?

In May, Prince Harry expressed a desire to reconcile with his family. He admitted that “some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book… they will never forgive me for lots of things” but he added that he “would love reconciliation with my family.”

“There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore. Life is precious.”

This was a notable shift in Harry’s tone from his previous criticism of the royal family.

In July, senior aides to King Charles and the duke were photographed together in London, leading to reports that it was the beginning of opening channels of communication between the two sides.

“It was a good first step,” an insider told PEOPLE at the time. “It is always better to be talking.”

The reunion has raised hopes of tensions easing between Harry and the royal family. If he had left the UK without paying a visit to his father, it would have been difficult to rebuild the relationship, which would have been “damaging for both sides,” as per BBC. 

The meeting is being seen as the first step to improve relations between father and son and to build trust.

However, a full family reconciliation seems off the table for now. While Harry saw his father, he did not meet Prince William.

On Monday, Prince Harry had laid a wreath at the grave of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, on the third anniversary of her death. Around the same time, William and Kate attended a Women’s Institute meeting honouring the memory of the late Queen, less than 10 miles (16 km) away.

Robert Lacey, author of Battle of Brothers, recently told PEOPLE: “The rift is very profound and very long-lasting. It will not be changed, in my opinion, until Harry makes a move and apologises.”

With inputs from agencies