Although he did everything to get to his grandmother’s bedside in her last moments, the prince who retired from his royal life did not get to board the plane with his brothers and uncles who also missed saying goodbye to the queen – in the meantime, he found out about the queen’s passing through reports on the net
Prince Harry desperately tried to get to his grandmother’s bedside to say goodbye – but found out she had died by reading reports online, Buckingham Palace sources told the New York Post.
The tension and agony were etched on Harry’s face as he was driven to Balmoral Castle, the Queen’s Scottish home, hours after she had already passed away on September 8.
One of the palace sources said that Harry was called to Scotland by his father, King Charles III, in the morning. However, another source in the palace confirmed that no one from the royal family, or courtiers, called to tell him about the queen’s death when he landed in the late afternoon.
After the news of the death, the royal family mourned together with Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle.
They spent a lot of time together for the first time since Harry and Meghan stepped down from their royal duties in January 2020.
All this raises the question: what will happen to the damaged relationships from now on?
Harry and Markle returned to their California home on Wednesday to be reunited with their children Archie, 3, and Lilith, 1.
A senior source close to them said that “I think the way Harry and Meghan appeared in London in the last few days shows that they only hoped to do the right thing.”
In response to the question of whether Harry and his brother, Prince William, have really mended their relationship, sources in the palace confirmed that the two talked at family meals and meetings.
Gail King, a close friend of Meghan and Harry who was in London to cover the funeral, told “CBS Mornings” this week that: “There were efforts on both sides to make it right.”
King added that there was no real rapprochement despite these “efforts”,
“Big families always go through drama, always go through turmoil. It remains to be seen if they are going to get closer… I don’t have inside information, but I will say this: it was good to see Harry standing by his family.”
With the shadow of Prince Harry’s planned memoir still hanging over the family atmosphere, another royal source denied a recent report that Markle had asked to speak “one-on-one” with Charles before the Sussexes returned home, calling the news a “Total lie”.
The Queen’s passing led to an attempt by family members to thaw the ice between Harry and his family – especially between Harry and Charles and William – but there were moments in the last two weeks when the palace’s decision to adhere to protocols of sitting and royalty – showed how awkward things remained for the parties.
The Queen’s official death was announced at 18:30 (local time), minutes before Harry landed at Aberdeen Airport from London.
After taking a private plane on his own, Harry was removed from the plane carrying his brother, their uncle Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward, and his wife.
In the end, only Charles and his sister, Princess Anne, were there when the Queen died in the early afternoon.
Harry, 38, arrived at Balmoral shortly before 8pm.
It was the first time Harry was in a room with the entire family since he left royal life in March 2020 and moved to the United States.
The couple hit the headlines on September 8, as soon as news broke that Harry had flown alone to his grandmother’s house.
Markle initially intended to join her husband, but chose not to after learning that her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, was staying home with her children, who had just had their first day at a new school.
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