Britain: Prince Harry says he would 'love reconciliation' with royal family

Prince Harry said he would love to reconcile with his family in Britain during an emotional BBC interview in which he admitted he had no idea about the prognosis of his father, King Charles III, who has cancer, and expressed a desire to end their painful rift.

The interview was released hours after Harry lost the latest round of his legal battle over his publicly funded security in the country.

Speaking in California, where he lives with his wife Meghan and their two children, Harry said, "I would love reconciliation with my family." He added, "There's no point 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."


The king announced that he had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in early 2024 and has been receiving weekly treatments since then.

Harry, Charles' younger son, wrote in detail about the rupture between him and other members of the royal family in his 2023 memoir, "Spare." He acknowledged in the interview Friday that the book had proved divisive.

"Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book," he said. "Of course they will never forgive me for lots of things." But he said that he believed the dispute over whether he should receive automatic police protection in Britain was the last remaining "sticking point" in the conflict, and he expressed hope that Charles could help resolve it.

Harry has been fighting a decision to remove the automatic police protection given to members of the royal family. That move was made after he stepped down from his official role and left the country in 2020.

Harry lost the previous stage of the case in February 2024 but appealed. That ruling came on Friday.

Geoffrey Vos, one of the three judges who dismissed Harry's case, told the hearing on Friday that a "bespoke" process adopted by a government committee after he moved to California, allowing British officials to make decisions on his visits to Britain on a case-by-case basis, was lawful.

He said the decision to downgrade Harry's automatic protection was "an understandable and perhaps predictable reaction to the duke of Sussex having stepped back from royal duties and left the U.K."

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.