Settle in for the Latest on Prince Harry and King Charles' Never-Ending Drama

Yahoo

12-05-2025

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Please put on the soundtrack to The Never Ending Story and settle in, because we're bringing you an exhaustive (some might say exhausting) timeline of Prince Harry and King Charles' years-long feud. This drama started back in 2020—when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from senior royal duties and left England—and shows no signs of slowing down five years later. In fact, the updates are coming so fast and furious that we're putting them in one place for our own personal sanity.
Meghan and Harry were busy settling into the royal family as a newly married couple, and apparently Prince William and Kate Middleton were...less than welcoming. To the point where Prince Charles (reminder: he wasn't king yet) had to step in.
Per royal reporter Katie Nicholl, "Harry felt William wasn't rolling out the red carpet for Meghan and told him so. They had a bit of a fallout, which was only resolved when Charles stepped in and asked William to make an effort. That's when the Cambridges invited the Sussexes to spend Christmas with them."
The fated month that Meghan and Harry announced their plans to step back from royal duties. As you can see in their since-deleted statement, they indicated that the decision was made with Harry's family:
"After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen. It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment. We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages."
However, BBC News royal correspondent Jonny Dymond tweeted, "BBC understands that no other member of the Royal Family was consulted before Harry and Meghan issued their personal statement tonight. The Palace is understood to be 'disappointed.'"
Harry later denied this during his Oprah interview, saying "I would never blindside my grandmother. I have too much respect for her."
Speaking of Oprah, the Sussexes sat down with her to give what can only be described as a truly bombshell interview. At one point, Prince Harry claimed Charles stopped taking his calls. Ahem:
"When we were in Canada, I had three conversations with my grandmother and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls."
Gayle King gave everyone an update following all ^ this ^, confirming that Harry had since spoken to his family: "I did actually call them to see how they were feeling, and it's true, Harry has talked to his brother and he has talked to his father too," Gayle said, in part. "The word I was given was that those conversations were not productive. But they are glad that they have at least started a conversation."
Prince Phillip passed away, and Harry flew home to England for the funeral—his first time reuniting with the family since their drama.
"Truth be told, Harry didn't really know what to expect before he came home, which is why he reached out before seeing everyone," a source told the Mirror. "He wrote a deeply personal note to his dad to try and set things straight but tensions are still running high and things haven't exactly ironed out the way he had hoped."
Following the royal family's meeting, The Sun spoke to a source who said that "Harry, William, and Charles focused on reaching some form of peace and stability within the family moving forward. The conversations were focused less on what has happened and what was said with Oprah and more on how to move forward as a family. And that is not an easy path, it requires time and understanding. Charles felt aggrieved at how the family's personal affairs and family dramas were expressed in such an 'insensitive' way."
Buuut later that month, Harry went onto Armchair Expert and said his dad had passed a cycle of pain onto him:
"I don't think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly when it comes to parenting, if I've experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I'm going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don't pass it on, basically. It's a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway so we as parents should be doing the most we can to try and say, 'You know what, that happened to me, I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen to you.'"
An anon friend told People that Charles was "shell-shocked" and "very hurt and upset" by the situation with Harry.
Things were looking slightly up as of early 2022, when a source told The Sun (via The Mirror), "There has been a definite thaw in relations between Harry and Charles. They are on much better terms and have been having friendly chats and video calls."
Harry went to England to visit the Queen, and ended up having a "cordial but slightly awkward" meeting with his dad that lasted 15 minutes. But then he sat down for a Today interview about said meeting, and said "I'm just making sure that she's, you know, protected and got the right people around her."
Apparently this didn't go over well with Charles, who was said to be "at a loss."
Meanwhile, Harry was also advocating for an impartial mediator to help deal with the family rift. Per royal expert Katie Nicholl in Entertainment Tonight, "Harry, I'm told, suggested perhaps that they might get some sort of a mediator in on sort of these talks, to make some progress. It was something that he had suggested to his father. He's made it very clear that he wants to sort things out. He wants things to be improved."
With news of Harry's upcoming memoir dominating headlines, royal expert Neil Sean told The Express that Charles had "iced out" his son for not giving him details:
"The fact they are remaining so tight-lipped means there have to be some bombshells in the memoir. Charles then iced his younger son with a very short meeting. He wanted to have a mature, adult conversation about what the book will contain, and whether the royals should be concerned about anything."
Charles allegedly invited the Sussexes to Balmoral, but sources told The Mirror that they declined: "The Prince of Wales reiterated his invitation for Harry and Meghan, and the whole family if they wished, to come and stay with him this summer while he is at his home on the Balmoral estate. He thought it might be a good opportunity for everyone to take stock and relax, but the invitation was declined."
The Queen then passed away on September 8, and Harry and Meghan flew to England to take part in her funeral.
Amid all this, The Times reported that Charles hadn't decided whether or not to allow Archie and Lilibet to use their titles, which was "heightening tensions" with the Sussexes.
Meanwhile, The Telegraph spoke to a source who said the newly minted King saw "tremendous flickers of hope" after spending some time with Meghan and Harry. Direct quote: "It remains the case that the King loves both of his children. Over the last 16 days or so, there were tremendous flickers of hope. In terms of the future, there is hope of a cause for unity."
A friend of Queen Camilla's spoke to the Daily Beast and said "Almost everything Charles has done over the past 20 years has, in one way or another, been about getting Camilla accepted by the public. He loves her. He is incredibly protective of her and he couldn't do it without her. Even the Queen finally accepted that. It is one thing for Harry to attack Charles, he can take it on the chin, but if Harry forces him to choose by laying into Camilla in his book, I have no doubt he will choose Camilla."
The Daily Beast added that there was "tremendous nervousness" within Charles' inner circle about what might be written in Spare.
Ahead of Spare's publication, Royal expert Tom Bower told The Sun that "[Charles] has made various threats to Meghan and Harry" and that the couple needed to "consider their own titles, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, could be taken away by Charles if they misbehave."
Harry and Meghan's Netflix special dropped, and Harry seemingly took a swipe at Charles...and William:
"For so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mold as opposed to somebody who you are perhaps destined to be with. The difference between making decisions with your head or your heart. My mom certainly made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart, and I am my mother's son."
The Guardian got its hands on a leaked copy of Spare, and revealed the conversation Prince Harry had with King Charles and Prince William at Prince Philip's funeral. Charles allegedly stood between his kids "looking up at our flushed faces" and said "Please, boys. Don't make my final years a misery."Spare then dropped in full on January 10, and Harry wrote about his dad extensively. More significantly, given what we know about Charles' concerns, he wrote about Queen Camilla:
"She was the villain, she was a third person in the marriage, she needed to rehabilitate her image. The need for her to rehabilitate her image…that made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press. And there was open willingness on both sides to trade information and with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street because of that."
Following this, a source told Us Weekly that "Charles is distraught. He's angry and outraged that Harry's aired so many embarrassing and damaging assertions, and it's put him in a terrible position with [Queen Consort] Camilla of course now that she's been dragged into the equation. That's really crossed the line in more ways than one, but there are so many egregious comments and revelations from Harry that his father doesn't know where to start. He has hope that in time the dust will settle and Harry will soften his heart toward his family, at least he hopes so. But he's not going to push or apologize."
There were even claims that Charles was "in talks" to issue a response to Harry in a landmark BBC interview to dish his side of the story.
Meghan and Harry were evicted from Frogmore Cottage.
The Telegraph reported that Harry and Charles had been holding peace talks ahead of Charles' coronation.
Harry showed up at the coronation and things went...fine?
The Sun reported that the Sussexes weren't invited to a royal gathering marking the one-year anniversary of the Queen's passing "despite being in Europe for the Invictus Games a day after the anniversary."
King Charles was diagnosed with cancer and The Guardian reported that "The Duke of Sussex has spoken with the King about his cancer diagnosis and will travel to the UK to see him soon."
Harry ended up visiting his father the day after his diagnosis was made public, and then made an appearance on Good Morning America while in Canada. When asked, "How was that visit for you, emotionally?" Harry said, "Look, I love my family. 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."
Meanwhile, news broke that Harry had reportedly told friends he'd be willing to take on official duties, but a source told the Mirror "Whatever has been discussed between William and the King is private, but it is absolutely and categorically clear that [William] would not allow Harry to return."
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward said (via People), "Of course [Charles] would like Harry to be the prodigal son and come back and would be much happier if William and Harry were friends again. But he realizes that is just not about to happen."
Royal author Tom Quinn told The Mirror that "Harry has been asked directly by his father not to write or say publicly anything further about the family or his brother that might cause trouble. And everyone knows that when a King asks you to do something, there are going to be consequences if you do not obey."
A friend of Prince Harry's told People that King Charles wasn't answering his son's calls, saying "He gets 'unavailable right now.' His calls go unanswered. He has tried to reach out about the King's health, but those calls go unanswered too."
A source told Entertainment Tonight that "Prince Harry's relationship with his father has deteriorated to a new low level" and if you're wondering why, apparently it's because they were "at loggerheads over Harry's security requests."
"Harry has genuine security concerns about the safety of his family in light of Princess Diana's death and feels that his father can help him in his ongoing battle with RAVEC (the entity that oversees security)," the insider said, adding "Their rift is not only just tied to security but also the family's distrust of Harry and Meghan, including Harry's tell-all bestselling memoir."
King Charles was hospitalized due to side effects from his ongoing cancer treatment, and the Palace failed to inform Prince Harry. According to The Sun's royal correspondent Sarah Hewson, "Harry only found out about his father's recent visit to hospital through the media," and "he doesn't know what his father's prognosis is."
Meanwhile, Harry was in England for his legal battle regarding security in the UK. Per Hewson, Charles avoided him on purpose due to the case:
"There is absolutely no way that the King could be seen to be intervening in this at all. Even any innocuous comment that could have been interpreted in a way and find its way into evidence in the court by Prince Harry's barrister. The King can't have conversations with him. And we're learning that the distance between them is perhaps greater than ever."
(Note: Harry denied asking his dad to intervene.)
Prince Harry told the BBC that he wants to reconcile with his father, and doesn't feel safe in the UK. "I would love reconciliation with my family. There's no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious" he said, adding "I can't see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point...I miss the U.K... I think it's really quite sad that I won't be able to show my children my homeland."
The royal family's reaction to Harry's BBC interview? According to a "close source" who spoke to Page Six "Nobody trusts him and that's the bottom line. The royal family has major trust issues with him and that's what's at the heart of everything. They don't trust him and Meghan and that's why they can't have a relationship….Maybe there's room to forgive, but they won't forget. Forgiveness and trust are two different things."
They added, "Harry messaged Charles and he never heard back. He wanted to talk to his dad about security stuff then, but his dad wouldn't speak to him. He really felt like his dad could overturn things."
The royals also took issue with Harry mentioning that he doesn't know what's going on with Charles' health. As a source told The Daily Mail "I don't know what's more disgusting–Harry's comment about his father's health or his suggestion that people want him dead. It's very sad, but we all know that he doesn't want to hear things he disagrees with."
At this point, you might think that Charles might reach out to Harry again, but the Daily Beast reported that "William's team has argued that Charles cannot bequeath his heir a settlement with Harry that William cannot live with."
That brings us up to date, but we'll keep this updated!
You Might Also Like
Here's What NOT to Wear to a Wedding
Meet the Laziest, Easiest Acne Routine You'll Ever Try