Prince Harry’s long history of asking his family for reconciliation in one breath while criticising them in another: From before Megxit to his latest interview, all the times he gave his family hope – and why they no longer believe him

Prince Harry has once again taken to the airwaves to publicly declare to his family: ‘With everything else going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile.’

In an interview full of softball questions, he said, seemingly referring to his brother Prince William: ‘People look at us, and go “How are you going to work it out?”.’

He then added, somewhat pointedly: ‘Some people don’t want it to work out. I want it to work out.’

So, after four long years without speaking to his big brother, could the younger royal finally be ready to bury the hatchet and put old grievances aside?

Well, it seems the Royal Family don’t see it that way, with Harry’s latest intervention drawing a ‘chorus of eye-rolls’ in royal circles, sources told the Daily Mail’s royal editor Rebecca English.

Not only was Harry’s statement poorly timed, as it overshadowed a big day for King Charles and the Princess of Wales who were welcoming the Sultan of Oman, but it was completely tone deaf.

The truth is that the troubled prince has a long history of publicly calling for reconciliation with his family in one breath while constantly criticising them in another. 

It’s no surprise then, that the rest of the royals have grown weary of Harry’s antics over the years and his stubborn refusal to realise that the lack of reconciliation may be down to his own actions.

Cracks begin to show during royal life

Harry first hinted at behind-the-scenes disagreements during his and Meghan’s first public engagement with William and Kate at a mental health charity event in February 2018.

When an interviewer asked how they resolve disagreements within the family, a clearly awkward moment fell over the foursome.

Attempting to diffuse the situation with a joke, Harry said: ‘I can’t remember. They come so thick and fast.’

While William joined in by quipping: ‘Is it resolved? We don’t know.’

Harry concluded by adding: ‘Working as a family has its challenges… but we’re stuck together for the rest of our lives.’

The conversation was initially dismissed as playful by viewers, but hindsight suggests this was one of the first times that Harry publicly came out and hinted at the rift in public.

It marked the beginning of a trend that would only ramp up as Harry’s anger grew in the years that followed.

The floodgates open after Oprah interview

Perhaps the most high-profile moment of Harry appearing to want reconciliation, while openly criticising his family, was the infamous Oprah interview in March 2021.

Amid a series of astonishing claims, Harry revealed that his brother, the Prince of Wales, cut off contact with him after he stepped away from the Royal Family the previous year.

But Harry seemingly left the door open to mending the rift, telling Oprah: ‘The relationship is “space” at the moment, and time heals all things, hopefully.’

He went on: ‘I will always love him – but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship.’ 

Yet Harry couldn’t seem to help himself, as he also used the interview to complain that his ‘family literally cut me off financially’ after he and Meghan stopped being working royals, despite their initial proposal revolving around financial independence.

And there were, of course, Meghan’s accusations that members of his family had been racist by asking what skin colour their son Prince Archie would have – something that no doubt hurt them deeply. 

In a show of backhanded pity, Harry also mused: ‘My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that.’

Harry doubles down on ‘speaking truths’

Taking no time to pause and reflect on the negative reaction to the interview, Harry chose to double down on his Oprah accusations in another money-making TV show.

Later in 2021, he and Oprah collaborated yet again on the Apple+ series The Me You Can’t See, where Harry insisted he still wanted ‘reconciliation’.

He also defended his decision to do the original Oprah interview and said: ‘I like to think that we were able to speak truths in the most compassionate way possible, therefore leaving an opening for reconciliation and healing.’

But he once again managed to burn bridges further when he publicly blasted Charles’s parenting and said that his father told him: ‘Well it was like that for me, so it’s going to be like that for you.’

The prince also went on to accuse the Royal Family of ‘total neglect’ at a time when Meghan was allegedly suicidal.

As usual, he seemed to paint himself as the victim of his stuffy family, commenting: ‘I’ve got a hell of a lot of my mum in me. The only way to free yourself and break out is to tell the truth.’

Netflix documentary turns family pain into drama

Yet another expedition of Harry’s mixed messaging to his family came during the release of the 2022 Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.

In the six-part series, there was a somewhat heartfelt moment when Harry admitted that his move from the UK hadn’t been all sunshine and rainbows.

He said: ‘I miss the UK, I miss my friends. I miss the weird family gatherings, when we are all sort of brought together under one roof for certain times of the year.’

But the prince, once again, couldn’t help turning the moment of sadness into a thinly veiled attack against them. 

Ever the victim, Harry told the cameras: ‘I have had to make peace with the fact that I am probably never going to get genuine accountability or a genuine apology.’

He also went on to accuse William of yelling and Charles of lying when they refused to bless the couple’s request for a ‘half-in, half-out’ Megxit that would allow them to earn a fortune while picking and choosing royal duties.

Describing the now infamous Sandringham Summit he said: ‘It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren’t true. And my grandmother, you know, quietly sit there and take it all in.’

Bombshell interview with Tom Bradby

The next major instance of the Duke of Sussex’s split attitude towards his family came shortly before his memoir Spare was released.

Just days ahead of its official release date in January 2023, Harry sat down with ITV news presenter Tom Bradby to film Harry: The Interview.

Bizarrely, the trailer teased reconciliation as the primary theme, and Harry framed the book’s media tour as an effort to facilitate a mending of bridges.

At the sit down he candidly told Mr Bradby: ‘I want my father and brother back.

‘It never needed to be this way. I want a family, not an institution.’ 

But once again, Harry trashed any thought of peace by giving his family both barrels. He accused them of showing ‘no willingness to reconcile’. 

Crucially, however, he followed up that statement by adding, ‘Though I would like to have reconciliation, I would like accountability.’

Although for the rest of the royals, it appears that giving Harry his long-desired ‘accountability’ seems to be the sticking point.

Spare shows Harry’s long-running grievances

Things went nuclear when Harry released his memoir Spare, as it revealed that his plethora of family grievances dated back to his childhood with William.

He called the Prince of Wales his ‘arch nemesis’ and made jabs at his appearance, pointing out his ‘alarming baldness’ and his resemblance to Diana that was ‘fading with time, with age’.

The memoir also revealed Harry’s claims of physical and verbal fights between the brothers, most notably the alleged Nottingham Cottage saga.

That argument, he said, arose from disagreements about Meghan, where William supposedly called her difficult, rude and abrasive.

Seemingly unaware of the severity of his accusations against the future king, and the disrespect he showed his family while asking for reconciliation, Harry continued his book press tour.

In his 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper as part of Spare’s promotion, Harry jaw-droppingly claimed he ‘never intended to hurt his family’.

And, in reference to the highly criticised passages about William, the duke confessed: ‘I don’t see it as cutting at all.’ 

It seems the Royal Family didn’t believe him.

Reconciliation chances grow following Charles’s cancer diagnosis

Things looked like they could be changing after the King’s cancer diagnosis in February 2024.

The tragic event brought the father and son together for the first time in nine months, because Harry flew over from his home in the US immediately.

Hopeful royal experts told the Daily Mail they believed the trip could be a ‘sign of a truce’, with views that it was the ‘good news’ coming out of the ‘bad news’ about the King’s health.

And later that month, Harry too seemed to be searching for the silver lining when he told Good Morning America: ‘I think any illness, any sickness brings families together. I see it time and time again, and that makes me very happy.’

However, just three months later, Harry visited London for Invictus Games arrangements but failed to spend any time with his sick father despite being just two miles away from him.

This time it wasn’t a public criticism from Harry that had derailed things, with insiders claiming a row had broken out between the pair behind the scenes.

In the aftermath, aides clashed over ‘who was avoiding whom’.

Harry and Meghan’s unexpected return to the UK

More than two years on, family reconciliation appeared to be on the horizon once again when Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet visited the King and Queen at Highgrove this summer.

It was the first time the King had seen his grandchildren in years, and while the private meeting adhered to the King’s wishes for a ‘peaceful’ family reunion, weeks of leaks from Team Sussex had left him ‘weak and wary’.

And just a month later, the King was blindsided by the announcement of their return to the UK.

Clearly eager to use his father’s status, Harry has since extended a self-serving olive branch by asking Charles to open the Invictus Games in 2027, an offer the King has yet to accept.

Perhaps this rejection is too much for Harry to handle, as he sat down with GQ magazine last month to publicly call for a family reconciliation once again.

But when the interview was broadcast this week, it became just another example in the long list of Harry talking up peace while simultaneously waging war.

Given his record over the years, who can blame The Firm for viewing his talk of reconciliation with a royally big dose of scepticism?