After making his royal exit four years ago, Prince Harry can’t help but look back.
Roya Nikkhah, royals editor for The Sunday Times and co-host of the podcast “The Royals with Roya and Kate,” claimed to Fox News Digital that the Duke of Sussex has been doing “a fair amount of looking back.” The 40-year-old has an ongoing battle over his security, which he lost after stepping back as a senior royal in 2020.
“He’s got various court cases still ongoing here,” Nikkhah explained. “I think we may see him back at the beginning of next year, which sort of pulls him back into . . . an old bit of his life that was very difficult for him.”
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Prince Harry still has a strained relationship with his father, King Charles III, who was diagnosed with cancer in February. (Isabel Infantes/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
“But he loves his family life out in the States,” said Nikkhah. “He’s thrilled to be a dad . . . I suppose for him, it’s just finding a role, a really meaningful role going forward… The Invictus Games is fantastic, and he does great work there and that will continue. But I think for him going forward, it’s . . . [finding] a meaningful world for himself living out in the States on the global stage.”
“Being a humanitarian is what he says he wants to be,” Nikkhah continued. “I think that’s what he will probably look to focus on for the next few years – how he builds that profile as a humanitarian.”
In her initial report for The Times, ahead of Harry’s 40th birthday in September, Nikkhah wrote that the royal’s “transition into the celebrity prince of California” came with a hefty price – losing his close bond with Prince William that is “almost certainly beyond repair,” as well as having a relationship with King Charles that is “strained to [a] breaking point.”
According to multiple royal experts, Prince Harry and his older brother Prince William aren’t speaking. ( Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
Those close to Harry told Nikkhah that he seems torn “between battling old demons and getting on with his life.”
“All he does is spend time looking back,” one former adviser to Harry told Nikkhah. “If only he could wrench his neck around and look forward.”
Nikkhah told Fox News Digital that the possibility of Harry having a partial role as a working royal has long been nixed.
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Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, departs in his chauffeur-driven Range Rover after attending the WellChild Awards 2024 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on September 30, 2024, in London, England. The prince is seeking to reinstate his police protection whenever he’s in his home country. (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
“I don’t see that happening at all,” she explained. “I don’t think it’s wanted by him, and it’s certainly not wanted by the royal family. And the whole point of [the Duke and Duchess of Sussex] leaving was that . . . the late queen agreed you can’t be half in, half out.”
“I just don’t get the sense from Harry or anyone around him that that’s what he wants,” she shared. “I don’t think he wants to be back in the UK doing official royal duties. Would he sometimes like to maybe join the family at events? Possibly, but I don’t think there’s any desire on either side for him to come back to do royal duties again.”
“He’s free to visit the UK whenever he wants,” Nikkhah continued. “And I think it’s been nice to see him back here a little bit more in the last few months. He’s come back a few times for charity engagements, like the WellChild Awards, which he supports.
“I don’t think he wants to be back in the UK doing official royal duties. Would he sometimes like to maybe join the family at events? Possibly, but I don’t think there’s any desire on either side for him to come back to do royal duties again.”
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, smiles as he attends the WellChild Awards 2024 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on September 30, 2024, in London, England. WellChild is a national charity supporting seriously ill children and their families. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
“And he came back in the summer for the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games and did engagements here. He looks very energized and happy when he’s back here doing that, despite all the turbulence of his family life and what added up to him and Meghan [Markle] leaving.”
Nikkhah noted that Harry’s relationship with his brother is still nonexistent.
“They’re estranged,” she said. “They don’t speak, that’s my understanding. They haven’t spoken for more than two years, sadly.”
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Prince Harry (right) is seen here at the funeral of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, alongside his brother Prince William and his father, King Charles. The queen died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Tensions between Harry and his father also appear to be ongoing. The Telegraph recently reported that a senior constitutional expert claimed that the prince’s legal case against the UK government over his security is impacting their relationship.
“Here you have the infelicitous situation where the king’s son is suing the king’s ministers in the king’s courts,” the source told royal biographer Robert Hardman, as reported by the outlet.
“That is pulling the king in three directions,” the adviser to the royal family claimed.
A report from The Telegraph in the UK claimed that the king is worried that he could be in “legal jeopardy” if he attempts to re-establish a relationship with his younger son, Prince Harry. (Hannah McKay/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
“You also have the situation where the king’s son publishes accounts of private conversations, some of which have been, shall we say, wrong,” Hardman added.
“So, imagine the situation if the prince were to talk to his father about his court case and then later describe that conversation – or, worse, a conversation which was not entirely accurate. There would be serious ‘legal jeopardy.’ Harry would only have to say, ‘My father said this’ and a court case could collapse.’”
Insiders previously told People magazine that Harry wants to reinstate his security to allow more flexible visits to the UK for himself, his wife and their two children.
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to California in 2020. (Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images)
The sources claimed that the issue plays “a crucial role” in his ongoing estrangement from his father. Sources claimed that the monarch has stopped taking his son’s phone calls and has not responded to his letters.
“It is feared that any comment by King Charles about the case . . . could cause serious legal jeopardy as the king is head of state and of the judiciary,” royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams explained. “[That] is an added reason, which has led to relations between father and son to be distant to the point where they did not see each other when Harry was recently in London, despite the king’s illness.”
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Harry has had a strained relationship with his family since he and his wife quit royal duties. At the time, the couple said the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British press were what prompted them to step back as senior royals.
Prince Harry’s memoir “Spare” was published in January 2023. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
The father of two has since detailed his rocky relationship with his family in TV interviews, a documentary and his memoir, “Spare.”
Royal expert Shannon Felton Spence told Fox News Digital, “It makes perfect sense” that Harry is looking back and possibly wondering what he could have done differently before his exit.
“It hasn’t turned out the way [the Duke and Duchess of Sussex] imagined it would,” she explained. “Some of that has been out of their control – they moved right before the pandemic shut down the world, which delayed many of their projects and their American launch. And in other parts of it they bear the responsibility for not panning out. They haven’t been able to retain a team or take advice on how to successfully position themselves as royals in the U.S.”
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Prince Harry is seen here attending the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on May 6, 2023, in London, England. The Duke of Sussex swiftly left and headed back to California. (Ben Stansall – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
“Their philanthropy has yielded very little,” she claimed. “And through all of it, they have truly lost a large amount of the clout, convening power and admiration that they had as working royals in the UK. Understandably, this would give him pause.”
“I’m told Harry was completely in his element on the ground at the United Nations General Assembly in September,” Felton Spence continued. “This is unsurprising because [he was] . . . doing the work that made us love him in the first place. And you can see it in the photos.
“Ultimately, the thing that brings him the most happiness is being a father. And I think he greatly appreciates the opportunity to now do that without the obligations and spotlight of the royal family. But the job of being ‘Prince Harry’ is all he knows professionally – and he is good at it! So, of course, it makes him wistful.”
Prince Harry hopes to bring his family to the UK more often, sources previously claimed. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex reside in the wealthy coastal city of Montecito. According to reports, the couple have purchased a home in Portugal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
