Prince Harry is seeking an apology before agreeing to attend his father King Charles’ Coronation on May 6, according to multiple outlets. Neither Charles nor Harry’s older brother Prince William will give Harry the apology he seeks because “ill will is still boiling over in the family,” a source says, and neither Charles nor William are “in any mood to pander to Harry’s demands following his latest attacks,” the outlet writes, according to the Daily Mail.
The ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London is little over 70 days away, and family relations are as icy as ever, according to The Daily Mail, with sources calling it a “toxic stalemate.” Save the date cards for the Coronation will be handed out in two weeks to the estimated 2,000 people invited a significant decrease from the 8,251 who attended Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation 70 years ago and formal invitations will not be issued out until only three weeks before the ceremony.
According to the Daily Mail, despite stepping back as a working member of the royal family with wife Meghan Markle three years ago, Harry has long had an open invitation to all family functions as a member of the royal family. This open welcome remains, “though it has been stretched to the limit,” according to the source, owing to Harry and Meghan’s Netflix docuseries and Harry’s memoir, Spare.
Omid Scobie, a journalist closely linked to Harry and Meghan, said this week that “no one knows their plans right now the couple has yet to be invited and can’t make a decision, nor any form of itinerary, until that happens.” According to The Independent, before RSVPing yes to the ceremony, which will be conducted on the fourth birthday of his son, Archie, Harry needs an apology, which he said in so many words during an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby to promote Spare: “There’s a lot to be discussed, and I really hope that they’re [the family] willing to sit down and talk about it,” Harry said.
The Daily Mail reports that Charles is at least willing to speak to his son—“he’s his son, he loves him,” a friend says of the King—but William is emphatically “not in the mood for any kind of conversation.”
“What are the family meant to apologize for?” an insider asks. “As the late Queen said, recollections may vary.” Another source adds “I don’t think His Majesty is minded to apologize for anything at present. Quite the opposite. There is still a huge amount of ill will boiling over in the family. Conversations could still happen in the next few weeks [over the Sussexes’ attendance], I am sure, but they will be waiting a very long time for an apology. There’s a great deal of hurt [at Harry’s actions].”
William is still hurt by the many assaults on him in the pages of Spare, but especially by those aimed at his wife, Catherine. A family friend says “I hear that William has no intention whatsoever of apologizing and remains incandescent, especially around the way his wife, the Princess of Wales, has been treated.” The relationship between brothers “isn’t even rock bottom now, it’s nonexistent,” a source says. “And I just don’t see, if Harry were to come to the Coronation, how William could even bring himself to look his brother in the face.”
For his part, The Mirror cites author Tom Bower as saying Harry was “unwavering” in his demand for a sit-down with Charles and William, and that “Harry has been very clear, and his position hasn’t wavered—he isn’t going to come [to the Coronation] if he feels the atmosphere will be as toxic as it was during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and funeral.”