King Charles has received advice from spiritual leaders that has led him to contemplate repairing his relationship with Prince Harry, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
Sources say the monarch has drawn comfort from their guidance as he comes to terms with both the death of his parents and the challenges of his new role.
Since inheriting the crown, he has spent more time exploring theologies and the teaching of their central tenets – including the nature of forgiveness.
A well-placed insider said Charles had taken ‘spiritual nourishment’ from his discussions with religious leaders and was now more open to the idea of a rapprochement with Harry, who has spent the past four years living in self-imposed exile in California with his wife Meghan and their two children.
‘Faith has always been a part of Charles’s life and something he’s explored, but since becoming King it is playing a more central role,’ the source said. ‘That reliance on faith and quiet contemplation has become a comfort and asset to him and helps him cope with the role as he adapts to being King.’
Healing the rift would require the King to put aside his anger over his younger son’s deeply wounding public comments.
Advice received from spiritual leaders has led King Charles to contemplate repairing his relationship with Prince Harry, here seen with his son in 2018
In his memoir, Harry called Camilla his ‘wicked stepmother’ and ‘the other woman’. And in a television interview watched by millions he claimed that two members of the Royal Family had made a pejorative remark about the skin colour of his son Archie.
It is well documented that Charles, 75, is pained by the separation which has meant not seeing his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet since June 2022, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex travelled to Britain for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Like his mother, whose beliefs saw her through some of the darkest times of her life and for whom faith went before protocol and duty, Charles, a spiritual man and regular churchgoer, has long drawn succour from Christianity.
But as head of the Church of England, he has pledged to protect the multiple faiths of a diverse Britain ‘no less diligently’ than Christianity.
Charles has always enjoyed a close and supportive relationship with the Jewish community in Britain, for instance. And he is seen as a defender of Islam, with one historian noting that no other major Western figure has as high a standing in the Muslim world.
Charles is a spiritual man, much like his mother, and a regular churchgoer. He has long drawn succour from Christianity [pictured with the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2022]
His Coronation embraced a multi-faith message with a wider range of religions represented than ever before. Hindu and Sikh leaders were among those taking part.
With regard to a possible reconciliation, the source said: ‘Charles misses his son.
‘He still loves Harry and wants him back for personal reasons – regardless that he and Meghan do not [want to] return to royal life.
‘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.’
The possibility of a thaw in the House of Windsor feud comes at a time when Charles is said to be concerned about financial demands from the Sussexes should their television deals dry up next year, as has been suggested.
With regard to a possible reconciliation, one royal source has said: ‘Charles misses his son, he still loves Harry and wants him back for personal reasons’
For his part, people close to Harry say his father no longer takes his calls or responds to his letters. After a positive meeting in February following the King’s cancer diagnosis, relations between father and son deteriorated.
But forgiveness is at the cornerstone of most religions and is seen as key to a healthy relationship with God and spiritual wellbeing.
Such belief systems regard making mistakes as part of the human condition and that those who wish to live a good life should seek forgiveness rather than revenge.
A major barrier to peace, however, is Prince William’s intransigence.
He is said to believe his own relationship with his brother is irreparably damaged and to have rebuffed the idea of a reunion.
Moreover, William is toying with the idea of abolishing the religious oaths of the Coronation – potentially leading to the disestablishment of the Church of England.
Yet his father’s faith couldn’t be stronger. News that Charles has received spiritual advice does not surprise those close to him. As King, Charles is also supreme governor of the Church of England with the title of ‘defender of the faith’.
During his first Christmas broadcast as King in 2022, he spoke of his mother’s faith in God being ‘one which I share with my whole heart’, and how he fulfilled a lifelong wish to visit Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity.
There, he said, he ‘stood in silent reverence by the silver star that is inlaid on the floor and marks the place of our Lord Jesus Christ’s birth’.
He added: ‘It meant more to me than I can possibly express to stand on that spot where, as the Bible tells us, “the light that has come into the world” was born.’
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace declined to comment.