King Charles Would 'Love to Have Harry Back'

King Charles III and Prince Harry will patch up their relationship because "the door is always open," the monarch's biographer told Newsweek.

Robert Hardman's new book, The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, was written with unrivaled access to Charles and Queen Camilla's new-look crown in the aftermath of succession.

Revelations have ranged from new insight into Queen Elizabeth II's anger over a public briefing war with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle about their daughter's name, to the news that Prince William is not as spiritual as his father or grandmother.

Now Hardman thinks that Charles will at some stage in the future mend the rift with Harry, even after the prince and Meghan's multiple broadsides against the monarchy. "Yes, in some way I do," Hardman told Newsweek. "I don't know how and when. Certainly, on this side of the Atlantic, the door is always open, and there's so much other stuff going on.

"For Harry, it's a different order of magnitude, because, does he want to reengage with his family?" Hardman said. "Charles would love to have him back in the fold, not being royal again—I think that ship has sailed, and I'm sure Harry would not want to do that."

Harry and Meghan's original pitch to the family in January 2020, at the point they announced they were quitting, was a "half in, half out" system; they would live abroad earning money in the private sector, while also performing some duties for the queen.

That hybrid approach was rejected, and ultimately a clean break eventually followed, with the final ties cut in February 2021 when they were stripped of honorary titles and patronages.

Fleetingly, some commentators wondered at the point of succession whether the "half in, half out" system might have another shot, though, in reality, that was never particularly likely.

Hardman said he does believe, though, that it is not completely impossible that Harry and Meghan might one day perform occasional royal duties again—though not in the short term.

Kate Middleton is recovering from major surgery; Prince William is taking time out to help her; and King Charles has also canceled engagements in preparation for his own hospital procedure next week. Yet, even this extraordinary set of unforeseen circumstances has not raised meaningful calls for a Sussex return.

"Someone said to me today," Hardman said, "'could this be the moment with the royal work shortage, for Harry to step in?' But it doesn't work like that.

"What would probably help move towards that situation is if he gradually started having a sort of normalizing... suddenly it's not such a big deal if Harry and Meghan are coming over to the U.K. privately with their children and having a playdate with their cousins," Hardman added.

"A lot of families go through these things, and they don't have to have it all scrutinised endlessly by the likes of you and me. I don't pretend to be close to the Sussexes at all but, from what I glean, it's a 'never say never' situation."

However, for there to be play dates between Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet and their cousins, Harry would need to patch things up with William. "It's going to be a trickier rapprochement when it comes to the brothers," Hardman said.

And there is the ever-present risk that a new scandal could, at any moment, set the royal rift back again. This happened with the release of Omid Scobie's book Endgame, in November, which said in its Dutch edition that Charles had made the infamous comment about Archie's skin tone.

Hardman's book also sparked a major debate with its account of Elizabeth's anger at Harry and Meghan's team briefing that she gave them permission to name their daughter after her childhood family nickname.

"I've seen a lot of reports that the queen was furious about the name," Hardman said. "It wasn't the naming that was the issue; it was the way that the naming was presented. The sort of war of words.

"It was the fact it was presented that she was in favor of this and then the BBC reported that actually she wasn't asked. And then the Sussexes said, 'That's not true; here's a lawyers' letter,' and the palace were asked to endorse this and very pointedly did not. That was what was the source of great fury."

Hardman said, however, that the saga may have been a little unfair on Lilibet herself, still a 2-year-old child, for whom the news stories on this subject may still be discoverable throughout her life.

"I get that. She's a completely blameless, adorable child," Hardman said. "Queen Elizabeth loved Harry and loved Lilibet, and I'm quite sure didn't envisage this ding-dong [quarrel] going on after her death. Once the lawyers' letters start flying around, this has been a story in the public domain for some time."

In relation to Charles and William, Hardman added that there are tensions but said footage captured for his recent BBC documentary Charles III: The Coronation Year allowed him to see first-hand a warmth in their relationship.

"They get on well. There are always the same tensions that there were between each.... There were tensions between Elizabeth and Charles. The exception to the rule in history was Elizabeth and her father. She adored her dad, but her dad died young," Hardman said.

Charles' misgivings were made very public in 1994 with the release of an authorized biography he did with Jonathan Dimbleby, The Prince of Wales: A Biography. It suggested that Prince Philip had reduced Charles to tears with "banter", while the only place he was guaranteed a hug was in the nursery with his nanny.

"With Charles, if you look back through the authorized biography by Jonathan Dimbleby, that's full of examples of tensions between Charles and the queen's officials," Hardman said. "So much of this is official versus official, but intergenerational struggles. You're going to get a bit of that with William and his father.

"Overall, they get on. It's just the little things you see. In the documentary I did that went out over Christmas, they see a lot of each other, but it's very seldom filmed or in public. There's a genuine warmth there. It's not stilted in any way."

Among its many insights, the biography quotes Princess Anne, Charles' sister, expressing her opinion on the idea he might simply be a caretaker king while Prince William waits to lead the monarchy's real future.

Anne does not agree and said: "When you start much later in your life, inevitably you've got more experience to fall back on and you will have more opinions."

Hardman also spoke to Queen Camilla's sister, Annabel Elliot: "People keep talking about 'he's a caretaker.' And I don't see that at all, knowing we'll see quite a few changes.'"

Meanwhile, Hardman was relaxed about recent polling commissioned by anti-monarchy campaign group Republic.

"I still think the monarchy is in a better place now than even the most-ardent monarchist would have thought or hoped back in the fall of 2022.

"I see Republic's polling, but I go with the broader poll of polls rating and it's not a ratings' game anyway; you've just got to feel the mood really."

The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy was published in America by Pegasus on January 18.

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.