Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during their departure from royal duties, highlighting the strained family relations.
Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle relocated to the United States in 2020, their relationship with the senior members of the Royal Family has become notably distant. This distance has significantly impacted Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, their children, who have experienced limited interaction with their royal relatives, particularly their grandfather, King Charles.
Jennie Bond, a former BBC Royal correspondent, has voiced concerns about this situation, emphasizing the potential detriment to the young royals. Bond hopes that Prince Harry will adopt a different approach to family disagreements than Meghan Markle has demonstrated in her own family relationships.
Speaking to OK! Magazine, Jennie Bond articulated the powerful bond between grandparents and grandchildren, stating, “Having grandchildren is a powerful tug on the heartstrings. Little people who are part of your bloodline and have had nothing to do with family quarrels and tensions. Utterly innocent tiny tots who deserve to know and love their grandparents.” She suggests that King Charles likely desires to connect with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet and create lasting memories with them. Bond believes that “The children may provide the most compelling link between Charles and Harry, and convince them both to forgive, if not forget, the bitter rows of the past.”
Bond further expressed her hope that Prince Harry would not emulate Meghan Markle’s approach of remaining “obdurately estranged” from her father and much of her extended family. She posited that Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet could be instrumental in fostering reconciliation between King Charles and Prince Harry.
Ingrid Seward, a royal author and expert, echoed these sentiments in a conversation with The Mirror. Seward stated, “Family has always been important to the King.” She noted King Charles’ awareness of his own “somewhat fragmented childhood” due to his parents’ royal duties. Seward highlighted King Charles’ sadness at not seeing more of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, explaining, “It is a great sadness to him he doesn’t see more of Archie and Lilibet.”
Seward emphasized the King’s desire for a genuine relationship with his grandchildren beyond virtual interactions. “He does not want a FaceTime relationship with his son’s children. He wants to know them and be involved with their lives while they are still young enough to be able to learn from his wisdom.” She added that King Charles’ cancer diagnosis has intensified this desire, making it “all the more poignant to him as he knows that he won’t be around forever.”
Royal author Tom Quinn has also previously raised the point about Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet potentially missing out on a close connection with their royal family. He suggested, “Meghan does miss some aspects of life in the UK and worries that her children will blame her if they never get to see their cousins and feel as adults that they have been deprived of what might have been a fun and meaningful existence in the UK.”
Jennie Bond responded to Quinn’s point by noting the innate curiosity children have about their heritage. “Children grow up and are innately curious about their heritage and background… and when your heritage is one of the most famous families in the world, it will undoubtedly seem rather odd and perhaps sad that you hardly know or remember them.” Bond painted a poignant picture of Prince Archie’s potential future reflections: “Imagine Archie, aged 15, telling his friends, ‘My grandpa is/was King! And my Uncle is/will be King too.’ But he hardly knew or met them. How sad… and Meghan would have to bear the brunt of the responsibility for that.” This underscores the hope that Prince Harry will forge a different path regarding family relations, potentially diverging from Meghan Markle’s approach to familial disputes, for the sake of his children’s connection to their royal heritage.
