Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should apologise to the Royal Family in an effort to end the bitter feud, a royal expert has claimed.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been estranged from most of the senior royals after they exited the monarchy in January 2020, and relocated to the US. The relationship between Harry and his family, including father King Charles and brother Prince William, further deteriorated when the couple sat down for a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, in which they made claims of racism and bitter feuds among the royals.
Harry deepened the rift between him and his family with the publication of his memoir Spare in January last year and made damning accusations about William, Camilla and Kate, including his claim that his stepmother leaked stories about him to the British press. Calls for Harry and Meghan to return to royal duties have intensified in recent weeks, but royal expert Richard Eden believes the Royal Family will only reconcile with the Sussexes once they apologise.
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Speaking on the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential YouTube channel, he suggested it was time for Harry and Meghan to make the first move and offer the olive branch. "Since Catherine's video was broadcast almost a week ago, there’d been lots of suggestions that William, with his wife being treated for cancer, should mend fences with his brother, that it’s a great time for them to come back together," Richard began.
"It’s up to Harry and Meghan to seek forgiveness. You know, we're in the season of Lent, and they should be the ones who apologise for all the hurt they’ve caused. They’ve contributed to a terrible state of mental health," he fumed. Richard then suggested the Princess of Wales has had to endure criticism and false stories about her from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, such as the allegations about her in Harry’s book Spare.
"What has Catherine had to put up with over the past few years? Putting up with these constant barrage of attacks. Any of us would find that gruelling and hard to take," Richard continued: "They should apologise, publicly or privately, and then maybe things can start to heal."
Meghan and Catherine’s relationship took a turn for the worse in 2018, when they reportedly had a falling out over Princess Charlotte's flower girl dress ahead of Meghan and Harry’s wedding. It was initially claimed the former Suits star had left Kate in tears following a bitter row, but during the Oprah interview, Meghan alleged it was the Princess of Wales who made her cry, not the other way round. "A few days before the wedding [Kate] was upset about the flower girl dresses and it made me cry," Meghan told Oprah, before adding that Kate later apologised and bought her flowers.
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