Prince Harry takes place for visiting the United Kingdom

For the past five years, there has been anger, upheavals and a deep family fracture in the heart of the royal family. The gap between King Charles III and the Duke of Sussex was painful for all the people involved and played in public. A resolution was difficult to find. But there are signs that tensions settle down and a new understanding between the father and the son could be at hand.

Prince Harry returns to the United Kingdom in just under two weeks. He was here last time in April for a security audience. At the time, his father was in Italy during a state visit, so the possibility of a meeting was outside the table.

Things are different this time. Not significantly different, but if we follow the evidence, there are signs of a slight change in mood.

To start, the king will be in the United Kingdom. He will be in Scotland in his Balmoral field. Harry could go to Scotland, but we know that the king travels regularly south for treatment against cancer and some royal commitments, leaving the chance to see his son in person.

The last time it happened was February 6, 2024, immediately after the king was made public with his diagnosis. It was a flying visit – literally.

The Duke of Sussex landed in Heathrow and was led directly to Clarence House. He saw his father for a little over half an hour before returning home to the United States the next morning.

Then there is the approach of the team that now represents Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In July, Meredith Maines, based in Los Angeles, who headed the communications team around Harry and Meghan, gave himself up for London to visit a certain number of charities and media organizations, including BBC News, with his British counterpart, Liam Maguire.

But it was not these meetings that were catchy development. A photographer imagined them in a club of private members with Tobyn Andreae, the king’s communication secretary. The images were published by mail on Sunday under the title “The Secret Harry Peace Summit”.

Exactly how the photographer came in place remains a mystery, the two sides denying that they overthrew it. A meeting like this would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago. The fact that they can all sit around a table and discuss the position in which they all find themselves suggest that the two would like things to be different.

And then there is the end of the case on the security of the home office when Harry is in the United Kingdom – a case that he lost.

The legal proceedings were deeply disturbing for the palace of Buckingham, who considered him as the son of the king pursuing the government of the king by the king’s courts.

While he was taking place, the father and the son did not speak. But Harry, 40, spoke to BBC News in May for an exclusive interview with journalist Nada Tawfik.

“I would love a reconciliation with my family,” he said. “I don’t know how long my father has. He won’t talk to me because of this security thing … but it would be good to reconcile.”

For some, these words were clumsy and looked hard with regard to his father’s health, especially since the King, 76 years old, continued with a complete newspaper of events during his treatment against cancer and spoke of being under tension by his public functions.

All this adds to a slight change of mood around the possibility and the will of reconciliation, despite the recent history of resentment and distrust.

The sense of short life has also come before.

In the successful memories of Harry, a book, a book that did a lot to feed the family, the Duke remembers an exchange with his father and his brother after the funeral of his grandfather, Prince Philip, then the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Tetchy cat, writes Harry, ended with an intervention by his father. “He stood between us, looking at our red faces: please boys – don’t make my last years a misery.”

These are words pronounced above all diagnosis of cancer, before his father was king, of a man in the 1970s trying to find a way to pass from the family.

These are Harry’s memories of the situation and as we know, “memories can vary”.

Confidence remains an important bonding point. The Buckingham Palace will want the assurances that the details of any family reunion remains private. Addressing the two parties this week, there is something of a unified position to say absolutely nothing in public on the possibility of a meeting between father and son.

The Buckingham Palace has continued with its long -standing position not to go into personal details of the relationship between the king and his youngest son. The Harry and Meghan team adopts the same approach. There is nothing to share officially.

But is the joint silence a sign which, after the years of public delay, this next phase, perhaps one of reconciliation, will occur far from the cameras, without fanfare?

We will first see Harry in London on September 8 when he attend the Wellchild award ceremony. He has been a boss of the charity that has supported seriously sick children and their families for 17 years.

“I always have the privilege of attending the Wellchild Awards and meeting the incredible children, families and professionals who inspire us all with their strength and their mind,” he said by announcing his return to the United Kingdom. “Their stories remind us of the power of compassion, connection and community.”

It will be the beginning of several days of commitments for Harry, in which he will strengthen his link with the United Kingdom and the organizations he supports here. Even with the move to America, he has remained a cheerful for a number of charities.

In May, he made an “important personal donation” to a charity in Nottingham to finance food plots for vulnerable families. Souvenir Sunday, Scotty’s little soldiers, a charity supporting children who lost a parent in the army, received Harry candies for all the young people who join the past of the military march.

Its link with the United Kingdom remains strong. The anxiety and division on both sides have been deeply felt and this great question of confidence must be overcome.

As the main royal correspondent, I watched the different episodes of this public conflict have been taking place since 2020.

The abyss between Harry and his brother William remains wide. The prospect of a reconciliation of the brothers and sisters is not on the cards at this stage. It is understood that they are not talking to each other and the injury is deep on both sides. The positions are rooted, they are fiercely protecting their wives and families and rebuilding that fraternal bond and confidence feel far away.

But it’s different with the king.

Harry’s visit to the United Kingdom next month has been like the best chance for some time for the relationship between father and son to have been a lack that has been lacking for several years.

As Prince Harry said in his interview with the BBC: “There is no point in continuing to fight … Life is precious.”

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