Father and son may have the opportunity to meet up as soon as September.

The Gist

Prince Harry has been estranged from many members of the royal family—including his father, King Charles—for years.
According to veteran royal biographer Robert Hardman, the window for a full reconciliation between father and son has likely “receded” after the Duke of Sussex’s emotional BBC interview in May.
That said, Charles and Harry could reunite as soon as September when Harry is back in the U.K.—making it the first time they’d seen one another in 19 months.

In the latest royal family round of the ongoing “Will they or won’t they?” saga is this question: Will father and son King Charles and Prince Harry meet up in September when the Duke of Sussex is in the U.K. for his annual visit in support of his WellChild patronage?

The last time Harry saw his father was in February 2024, not long after the King announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer. Charles’s cancer treatment still continues today, and the type and stage of the disease has never been publicly disclosed, though it has been made known that his cancer is not prostate cancer.

Royal biographer Robert Hardman believes that Charles and Harry are unlikely to ever fully repair their rift, writing in a piece for The Daily Mail that any hope of reconciliation for the two “had just receded further.”

Harry has been estranged from the royal family—namely his father and most especially his brother, Prince William—since he and wife Meghan Markle stepped back from being working members of the royal family in 2020 and relocated to Meghan’s home state of California. In an emotionally-charged BBC interview last May, Harry said, “I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore.”

“Life is precious,” he added, and, referring to his father’s cancer, he continued, “I don’t know how much longer my father has. He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff, but it would be nice to reconcile.”

Hardman said that the royal family’s inner circle was “frankly appalled” at Harry’s “glib choice of words” regarding Charles’s health.

The official palace response said of Harry’s ongoing court battle to reinstate his official security in the U.K., “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.” Hardman wrote that “Within the Royal Household, there was both exasperation and incredulity that Prince Harry could expect any sort of rapprochement after springing yet another effusion of scattergun accusations on the family via the media.”

In July, though, the King and the Duke of Sussex’s respective camps had a summit in London that seemed a positive step forward and a hopeful meeting that could hint at father and son reuniting the next time Harry is in town, which is next month.

“I love my family,” Harry said on Good Morning America in February 2024 (via Us Weekly). “The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that. I jumped on a plane and went to go see him as soon as I could.”

“I’ll stop in and see my family as much as I can,” the Duke of Sussex added.