Prince Harry said he wants to reconcile with his family in Britain and admitted he no longer knows the condition of his father, King Charles III, who is undergoing cancer treatment and has stopped taking his calls.
“I would love reconciliation with my family,” Harry said in an interview with the BBC aired Friday. “There’s no point continuing to fight anymore. Life is precious. 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.”
The comments come as Harry faces a new setback in his legal battle with the British government over police protection, which was revoked after he stepped down from royal duties and moved to California in 2020 with his wife Meghan Markle.
Hours before the interview aired, the U.K. Court of Appeal rejected Harry’s challenge to the decision, ruling that a government committee acted lawfully in assigning his security on a case-by-case basis.
Harry, 40, said the ongoing dispute has deepened the family estrangement. He also acknowledged that his 2023 memoir “Spare”, which offered a raw, critical account of royal life, made reconciliation harder.
“Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book,” he said. “Of course they will never forgive me for lots of things. But I believe the last sticking point is really the issue of security. And I hope my father can help resolve it.”
The legal dispute centers on a decision by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures, known as RAVEC, which removed Harry’s automatic entitlement to publicly funded police protection after he ceased being a working royal.
Harry offered to pay for security out of pocket, but the committee declined, saying private payment for public protection would be inappropriate and could strain limited resources. British police officers assigned to royal protection are highly specialized and armed only under specific circumstances, unlike many of their U.S. counterparts.
The prince began his legal challenge in 2021, arguing that RAVEC’s decision exposed him and his family to risk and failed to follow its own policies. Friday’s ruling upheld the lower court’s decision, with Judge Geoffrey Vos saying RAVEC had acted within its authority.
“It was an understandable and perhaps predictable reaction to the Duke of Sussex having stepped back from royal duties and left the U.K.,” Vos wrote.
The judge acknowledged Harry’s concerns for his family’s safety and said the prince “felt badly treated by the system,” but concluded those feelings didn’t make the decision unlawful.
Harry’s lawyers presented evidence of credible threats, including what they described as “additional layers of racism and extremism” targeting him, Meghan, and their children.
In an earlier interview with The Daily Telegraph, Harry described the years-long legal battle as “exhausting” and “overwhelming.”
Since relocating to California, Harry has returned to Britain only for major events — including the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the coronation of King Charles III, and multiple court appearances — each time filing a new application for government protection, often supplemented by private security.
