17-05-2025
Prince Harry's Royal Rift Timeline: How Relations Sunk So Low
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Prince Harry's relationship with his family hit a new low point when he revealed this month that his father no longer speaks to him—leaving him more isolated than ever before.
This sad state of affairs was at least eight years in the making and dates back to the early days of his relationship with Meghan Markle.
There have been numerous key moments along the way, however, including attempts at peace making that failed.
From the left, Princess Kate, Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put on a united front in honor of Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in England on September 10, 2022.
From the left, Princess Kate, Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put on a united front in honor of Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in England on September 10, 2022.2016—Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Relationship Goes Public
Harry and Meghan's relationship was revealed for the first time on the front page of U.K. tabloid the Sunday Express at the end of October.
The news triggered relentless reporting by the media, culminating in a statement by Kensington Palace press secretary Jason Knauf a week later denouncing "smears" and racist trolling.
"In fact, my statement generated a whole new onslaught—from my family," Harry wrote in his book Spare. "Pa and Willy were furious. They gave me an earful. My statement made them look bad, they both said.
"'Why in hell?' Because they'd never put out a statement for their girlfriends or wives when they were being harassed."
2017
—Harry Fights for Meghan's Police Protection Team
As early as November 2017, the month the couple got engaged, Harry says he was told Meghan would not receive police protection by RAVEC, a committee of the U.K. Home Office responsible for decisions on royal protection.
In a May 2025 statement, he wrote: "In November 2017, before the Royal Household's role on RAVEC was known, this secretive committee concluded that when my wife would join the royal family, she should not receive protection.
"Only when I asked for the name of the person willing to carry that risk, did they reverse the decision."
2018—Arguments Leading up to the Wedding
Harry, Meghan, Prince William and Princess Kate were soon nicknamed the "fab four" by the media but behind closed doors tensions were fraying.
The two couples acknowledged arguments between them at a Royal Foundation Forum joint interview in February 2018, though gave no details on what had caused the friction.
However, the situation escalated leading up to the wedding, including over Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid dress not fitting.
Harry wrote in his book Spare: "A short time later I arrived home and found Meg on the floor. Sobbing.
"I was horrified to see her so upset, but I didn't think it a catastrophe. Emotions were running high, of course, after the stress of the last week, the last month, the last day. It was intolerable—but temporary. Kate hadn't meant any harm, I told her."
June 2018—Crisis Talks With William and Kate
The two couples attempted to thrash out their differences that summer, sitting down at William and Kate's Kensington Palace home to talk things through.
However, the discussion quickly became inflamed, with William accusing Meghan of being rude in the run up to the wedding when she brought up then-pregnant Kate's hormones.
Meghan told William: "Kindly take your finger out of my face."
Over that summer, Kensington Palace staff formed into rival camps and William told Harry that Meghan had been mistreating employees.
For Harry's part, he wrote in Spare: "Nerves were shattering, people were sniping. In such a climate there was no such thing as constructive criticism. All feedback was seen as an affront, an insult.
"More than once a staff member slumped across their desk and wept. For all this, every bit of it, Willy blamed one person. Meg. He told me so several times, and he got cross when I told him he was out of line."
October 2018—Harry and Meghan Tour Australia
In October, on their first major international tour—to Australia and the South Pacific—the Sussexes announced Meghan was pregnant with their first child.
Harry would later suggest this was the "the first time that the family got to see how incredible she is at the job" and that royal jealousy at this moment triggered later hostile stories in the media.
However, there were also suggestions Meghan had left staff in tears during the tour and on their return Kensington Palace press secretary Jason Knauf wrote an email to William's private secretary Simon Case accusing the duchess of bullying two PAs out of the household.
November and December 2018—The Rift Becomes Public
By November stories began appearing in the U.K. press presenting Meghan as a royal diva, though they were far softer than the accounts of bullying that would later emerge.
One article in The Daily Telegraph suggested Meghan had made Kate cry during an argument about bridesmaids' dresses and it was followed up on the front page of The Sun.
In December, The Sunday Times ran a headline nicknaming Meghan "Duchess Difficult" for a story that suggested she was struggling to retain staff.
2019—Meghan's 'Almost Unsurvivable' Trolling
Meghan would later tell Oprah Winfrey in 2021 this was the turning point in her treatment by the British media and left her feeling suicidal by January 2019.
She said: "I just didn't want to be alive any more. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought.
"And I remember how he just cradled me. And I went to the institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help.
"I said that, 'I've never felt this way before, and I need to go somewhere.' And I was told that I couldn't, that it wouldn't be good for the institution."
And on the Teenager Therapy podcast in 2020 she said: "In 2019, I was the most trolled person in the entire world, male or female."
"Eight months of that, I wasn't even visible," she continued. "I was on maternity leave with the baby—but what was able to be manufactured and churned out, it's almost unsurvivable, it's so big you can't even think what that feels like."
Early 2019—Prince William Throws Harry into a Dog Bowl
Harry in his memoir accused William of bundling him to the ground and into a dog bowl during an argument about Meghan.
It is not completely clear when he says this happened but he indicates it was around the time he and Meghan left the private office they shared at Kensington Palace.
Biographer Robert Lacey wrote in Battle of Brothers that William threw Harry and Meghan out.
October 2019—Meghan is Not OK
Prince Harry acknowledged the existence of a rift between him and William publicly for the first time in an October 2019 interview during the couple's tour of South Africa: "We are certainly on different paths at the moment."
In the same ITV interview, Meghan said: "Not many people have asked if I'm OK, but it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes."
And at a WellChild awards appearance that month Harry teared up on camera, sparking a 72-hour argument with Prince William by text.
He wrote in Spare: "Now and then I realized that my worst fear was coming true: after months of therapy, after working hard to become more aware, more independent, I was a stranger to my older brother. He could no longer relate to me—tolerate me.
"Or maybe it was just the stress of the last few years, the last few decades, finally pouring out.
"I saved the texts. I have them still. I read them sometimes, with sadness, with confusion, thinking: How did we ever get there?
"In his final texts, Willy wrote that he loved me. That he cared for me deeply. That he would do whatever is needed to help me. He told me to never feel any other way."
November 2019—Harry and Meghan Go to Canada
By November 2019, Harry has said it dawned on Meghan for the first time that the conflict was driven by jealousy.
He told the couple's Netflix biopic Harry & Megan how they had beaten other royal family members to the front page of The Sunday Telegraph the morning before the Remembrance Sunday service.
"The first time that the penny dropped for her, M and I spent the night in a room at Buckingham Palace after an event where every member of the family, senior members of the family, had been, including the queen."
Meghan added: "The next morning they had set up breakfast for Harry and I." Harry said: "And on the front page of The Telegraph, Meghan."
Later that month, the couple left Britain for Canada to celebrate Thanksgiving.
January 2020—Harry and Meghan Quit
The Sussexes dramatically quit as working royals in January 2020 to begin a new life in North America.
The decision sparked the Sandringham Summit, at which Harry sat down with Queen Elizabeth II, Charles, William and their respective private secretaries to thrash out the terms of the exit.
Harry later wrote in Spare: "The subject of the press came up pretty quickly. I referenced their cruel and criminal behavior, but said they'd had a ton of help.
"This family had enabled the papers by looking the other way, or by actively courting them, and some of the staff had worked directly with the press, briefing them, planting stories, occasionally rewarding and fêting them.
"The press was a big part of why we'd come to this crisis—their business model demanded that we be in constant conflict—but they weren't the only culprits.
"I looked at Willy. This was his moment to jump in, echo what I was saying, talk about his maddening experiences with Pa and Camilla. Instead he complained about a story in the morning papers suggesting that he was the reason we were leaving."
Ultimately, the Sussexes were given a one-year trial period in which they would keep certain honorary titles and royal patronages while being free to strike deals outside "The Firm."
July 2020—Meghan's Swipe at Kensington Palace
The couple relocated to California, initially staying in Los Angeles with Tyler Perry before buying their own home in Montecito that July.
Publicly, the Sussexes had still not yet criticized the monarchy but that all changed a few month later when Meghan's lawyers submitted a court filing to a lawsuit she had brought against The Mail on Sunday over a private letter she sent her father.
The document, seen by Newsweek, suggested Meghan had been left unprotected while pregnant in a foreshadowing of her argument to Oprah Winfrey less than a year later.
February 2021—Harry and Meghan Stripped of Their Titles
The queen brought the trial period for half in, half out to an end when she stripped Prince Harry of his highly prized role as Captain General of the Royal Marines along with a number of other patronages.
March 2021—Oprah Winfrey Interview
The move paved the way for the couple's Oprah Winfrey interview recorded at the end of February but broadcast on March 7, 2021.
Meghan said of her son Prince Archie that an unnamed royal had "concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."
Elizabeth replied with a carefully worded statement that "some recollections may vary."
April 2021—Prince Philip's Funeral and a Meeting With Prince William
Prince Philip had been in hospital when Oprah was broadcast and he past away aged 99 on April 9, 2021.
Harry returned home for the funeral at St. George's Chapel, his first visit back to the U.K. after moving to America.
After the service, there was an opportunity to talk with Prince William and Charles so the three met up in Windsor.
Harry wrote in Spare: "I looked at Willy, really looked at him, maybe for the first time since we were boys.
"I took it all in: his familiar scowl, which had always been his default in dealings with me; his alarming baldness, more advanced than my own; his famous resemblance to Mummy, which was fading with time. With age.
"In some ways he was my mirror, in some ways he was my opposite. My beloved brother, my arch nemesis, how had that happened?"
Needless to say, the meeting did not heal the rift.
May 2022—Prince Harry Swerves Question on Missing Charles and William
A year later, Prince Harry was back in Europe at The Hague, the Netherlands, for the Invictus Games.
He appeared to swerve a question during an interview with Hoda Kotb when he was asked "do you miss your brother, your dad?"
"Look," he said. "I mean... at the moment, I'm here focused on these guys [at the Invictus Games] and these families and giving everything I can, 120 percent to them to make sure that they have the experience of a lifetime. That's my focus here."
September 2022—Queen Elizabeth II's Death
Queen Elizabeth II passed away at Balmoral, her Scottish estate, on September 8, 2022, but even in her final hours there was family conflict.
Harry wrote in Spare: "Then came another call from Pa. He said I was welcome at Balmoral, but he didn't
"He started to lay out his reason, which was nonsensical, and disrespectful, and I wasn't having it. 'Don't ever speak about my wife that way.'
"He stammered, apologetic, saying he simply didn't want a lot of people around. No other wives were coming, Kate wasn't coming, he said, therefore Meg shouldn't.
"'Then that's all you needed to say.'"
Harry also was not told his grandmother had passed away before it was announced publicly, meaning he found out via a news article.
Days later William, Kate, Harry and Meghan were alongside each other again for a show of unity in Elizabeth's honor.
And Harry joined his father, brother and other family members in a procession behind the queen's coffin.
Meghan watched on alongside Kate, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Queen Camilla and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh.
January 2023—Harry Confirms No Contact With William
By December though, the Sussexes had returned to criticizing the royals with the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.
The prince's book, Spare, came next in January 2023 and alongside its release he did a 60 Minutes interview in which he acknowledged Prince William was no longer speaking to him.
"Currently, no," he said. "But I look forward to us being able to find peace."
Asked about Charles, he replied: "We haven't spoken for quite a while. Um, no, not recently."
In the aftermath of the book, Charles ordered the eviction of Harry and Meghan from their U.K. home Frogmore Cottage.
February 2024—King Charles Gets Cancer
The royals had a dramatic start to 2024 with first Kate then Charles undergoing hospital procedures in January, with Charles announcing in February he had cancer.
Harry appeared to drop everything and book himself onto a plane to London where he managed to get under an hour with his father before the king retreated to Sandringham to spend time resting. Harry was seemingly not invited.
May 2024—King Charles Has Other Priorities
If the messaging had not been completely clear in February the tension became harder to ignore by May when Harry returned to Britain again to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games.
Harry's spokesperson released a statement confirming no meeting would take place despite Charles' cancer: "The duke of course is understanding of his father's diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon."
May 2025—Harry Confirms No Contact With King Charles
Harry gave the strongest confirmation yet that he is effectively estranged from his father at the point he lost a Court of Appeal case against the U.K. Home Office in which he had hoped to get his police protection team reinstated.
"I would love reconciliation with my family," Harry said. "There's no point in 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."
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, 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 Charles and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@ We'd love to hear from you.
