For Prince Harry, his rift with brother Prince William and father King Charles III has been something he has grieved.
“Yes, of course,” Harry, 42, said during a sit-down interview with GQ’s Zach Baron filmed in September and released on Tuesday, October 20, when asked whether he grieves his “complicated relationship” with his father and brother. “I think from a family perspective, again [it is] another massively relatable issue for so many people.”
“There’s sibling disagreements. There’s broken relationships between kids and their parents. Kids and one parent. That continues to come up with me the whole time by people that I speak to. So I know how relatable it is,” Harry continued. “That’s probably why there’s so much fascination. … And then people maybe look at us and go, ‘How are you going to work it out?’ And then, maybe, how I see you’re going to work it out, maybe that will help me work my stuff out. And some people don’t want it to work out. I want it to work out.”
A spokesperson for Harry later clarified his comment about “some people” not wanting things to work out in a statement to People, sharing that the remark “was absolutely not intended as a swipe at his brother or any other member of his family. The comment was made in a general context and was not directed at his family in any way.”
During the interview, Harry shared that he “of course” wants his relationship to “work out,” adding, “With everything else that’s going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile. That’s the key point.”
When Baron asked whether “this wound” is something Harry thinks could be repaired, the prince replied, “Yeah, of course.”
“Look, scars stick around forever, but what your perception is and what your mindset is to those things that have happened — certainly letting go of the past — that’s something that I would encourage everybody to do,” he said. “If there’s certain things from the past that are still affecting your everyday, that’s harder to let go of. But yeah, for me, there’s enough drama in the world and enough drama in people’s lives than to continue with issues with family.”
Harry and William, 44, have had a fractured relationship since the Duke of Sussex and his wife,
Meghan Markle, stepped down from their senior royal duties in January 2020. The couple, who tied the knot in 2018, laid roots in California with son Prince Archie, 7, and daughter Princess Lilibet, 5, before moving back to England in August to enroll their children in school.
