After a Sunday newspaper reported on the King’s new attitude after receiving ‘spiritual nourishment’, commentator Sarah Vine says that neither father nor son is the real problem

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back from frontline royal duties in 2020 (Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

One of Britain’s leading commentators has suggested that Meghan Markle is the “real obstacle” to a reconciliation between King Charles and Prince Harry.

The Mail on Sunday reported that the monarch was now more open to repairing the badly damaged relationship with his youngest son after receiving “spiritual nourishment” from faith leaders.

But Sarah Vine, who was married to former Tory MP Michael Gove for 20 years, wrote: “This newspaper reports that King Charles’s faith may be key to achieving a reconciliation with Prince Harry. Great news, but I don’t think either is the problem – the real obstacle is someone who thinks she’s God’s gift.”

The rift means that Charles has not seen his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet since June 2022, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in the UK for the late Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

The War of the Windsors began after Harry and Meghan quit royal life and went into self-imposed exile in California in February 2020, before THAT bombshell Oprah interview when the couple accused two members of the Royal Family of making racist comments.

Harry’s memoir, Spare, published in January 2023, further soured relations between father and son after he described Queen Camilla as his “wicked stepmother” and “the other woman”.

King Charles and Prince Harry are at loggerheads (Image: No credit)
Charles, a spiritual man and regular churchgoer, is the head of the Church of England but he has pledged to protect the multiple faiths of a diverse Britain and his Coronation embraced a multi-faith message.

A source told the paper: “Harry will always be Charles’s much-loved son. He has faith that Harry could return. He misses the bond they once had, and the door will always remain open to him and his family. He does not want years of discord and disharmony clouding his reign.”

Although Harry and Charles had a positive meeting in February following the King’s cancer diagnosis, the hoped-for reunion has faltered since then. And sources close to the Duke of Sussex say his father no longer accepts or returns his telephone calls.