Why This Summer Could Be Prince William's Last Chance at Peace With Harry
A Norfolk summer, two brothers a short walk apart, and a royal family running out of time. As Harry waves the white flag, the ball may finally be in William's court.
Things are changing behind Palace walls. After years of silence, cold shoulders, and indirect digs that said everything except an apology, there are signs that a thaw may finally be coming. And it might happen in the English summer, in Norfolk — where, for the first time in years, two estranged brothers could find themselves just a short walk apart. And whether the older one, a future king, a man of faith, is finally ready to do what that faith asks of him.
It is being reported that Prince Harry wants to come home, or at least close to it. Royal biographer Andrew Morton, writing on his Substack, said Harry has waved the white flag. "News that the Prince has finally waved the white flag and made it known that he would like his father, King Charles, to meet with his family this summer at Sandringham did not come as much of a surprise," Morton wrote. Ever since Harry flew back from California to see his ailing father last September, he has barely hidden how much he wants things to be different. During a visit to Ukraine, he shared that he could see the doors opening in the UK for him. He misses Britain — his friends, his military mates, his charities. Morton notes, however, that there is no mention of wanting to see his brother, Prince William.
Morton knows exactly why Harry keeps pushing. "There is another, more pressing reason for Harry's offer of a peace pipe," he wrote. "He is concerned, as any son would be, about his father's health and knows from bitter experience how the fickle and unrelenting finger of fate points and moves on." Harry was at Balmoral when his mother, Princess Diana, died in 1997. She had called him that same afternoon, and he had been brief with her, distracted, eager to get back to his cousins. Morton writes that he doubts "there is barely a day that goes by when he doesn't think about that last interaction." That kind of regret does not leave you. And it is the same regret that ought to concentrate William's mind too, because the cost of leaving things unsaid has already visited this family once before. And after Charles's passing, any form of thaw will be very difficult for the estranged brothers.
And probably July is shaping up to be the moment of reckoning. It is when Charles usually spends time at the Norfolk estate before heading to Scotland in August, and it is also when Harry is due in Britain to help set up next year's Invictus Games in Birmingham. Historian and royal commentator Tessa Dunlop thinks a Norfolk visit would be good for everyone, including the estate itself, which has had a rough time lately — largely thanks to Mountbatten-Windsor's lingering presence. "Locals are understandably peeved at their association with the disgraced former Prince," she wrote for The Independent. A Sussex visit would be a welcome change of subject. And as Dunlop points out, when it comes to disgraced Mountbatten-Windsor, Harry's sins look relatively minor by comparison.
Which brings us back to William. While Harry and Charles work things out, the Prince of Wales and his family will be at Anmer Hall — just a short walk from Sandringham. William may well be away for part of the summer, cheering on England at the World Cup in America, which Dunlop notes would helpfully take him out of the picture during the most delicate stretch of any Sussex visit. But he cannot be away forever.
Morton looks to William's faith for clues about what might happen when he is home. An aide recently described the Prince of Wales as having "a quiet faith that is deeply rooted in prayer, compassion and a belief in grace and redemption." Morton unpacking that says, Christian grace, in its original sense, means "benevolence bestowed upon the undeserving." It is from the parable of the prodigal son: the younger brother who makes a mess of everything, comes home, and is forgiven — first by his father, and then, harder still, by his older brother. Morton asks, with a sly nudge, "Remind you of anyone?" The older brother in that parable almost missed his moment. He let pride and hurt keep him outside while the celebration went on without him. He came around eventually, but only just. Morton seems to be suggesting that William would do well to remember that part of the story, too.
