Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Have Not Received a \201cPersonal Apology\201d from the Royal Family

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published 5 February 2023

If Prince Harry was hoping the much-anticipated release of his memoir, Spare, would be the catalyst to healing the rift between him and the rest of the royal family, he’s surely disappointed. As Us Weekly reports, nearly a month after the book’s publication on January 10, Harry’s “relationship with the royal family remains unchanged,” the outlet writes.

“No apology to Meghan [Markle] has been made by the Palace, which frustrates Harry,” a source tells the outlet, specifically referring to Harry’s request that his wife receive an apology for the way she was treated. “Nor has he received a personal apology.”

Harry apparently hoped the book would spark a dialogue between the Sussexes and the rest of the family, specifically his brother, Prince William, but no such advances have been made.

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“He was hoping his family, especially William, would lay their cards on the table and have an open conversation with him, but they haven’t made progress,” the insider says.

With King Charles’ coronation looming in exactly three months’ time, a second source tells Us Weekly that the royal family will have to settle their differences eventually: “At this point, the royals can only move forward and come to some form of truce with Harry if everyone sits down and talks through their issues privately,” the source says. “Despite everything that’s happened, Harry does want his family in his life.”

This was demonstrated in the media tour surrounding Spare, including an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby that aired January 8—two days before the book’s publication—where Harry said he was “100 percent” open to forgiveness with Charles and William.

“I sit here now in front of you asking for a family,” Harry said. “Not an institution. I want a family. And I understand how that might be hard for them to be able to separate the two, but to me, everything that I’ve witnessed and experienced over the years, there has to be a separation.”

Yet, despite his objective of an apology—or, at least, forward motion towards that end—not being met (at least as of now), Harry has “few regrets” regarding his memoir, the source tells Us Weekly.

“Harry is happy with the outcome of Spare,” the insider says. “Yes, there has been some backlash. By now he knows it comes with the territory—it’s what he was signing up for when he agreed to write Spare.”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.