The Duke of Sussex is 'grateful' to meet his father after the monarch was diagnosed with cancer and hopes Charles' health battle could bring the royal family together.
- Feb 16, 2024
AceShowbiz - Prince Harry thinks King Charles' cancer diagnosis could "reunify" the royal family. The Duke of Sussex - who, along with wife Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, stepped back from official duties in January 2020 to start a new life in California - flew back to the UK earlier this month to see his father after it was announced the 75-year-old monarch had been diagnosed with cancer, and though they spent less than an hour together in their first face-to-face meeting for 16 months, Harry is "grateful" he got to see him.
"Look I love my family. The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him I'm grateful for that," Harry - who has been critical of Charles and his brother Prince William in his memoir "Spare" and subsequent promotional interviews - told Will Reeve on "Good Morning America" when asked "how was that visit for you, emotionally."
Will, the son of late "Superman" legend Christopher Reeve - who was left paralyzed from the shoulders down following a riding accident in 1995 - then said, "I've also found in my own life that sort of an illness in the family can have a galvanising or a sort of reunifying effect for a family. Is that possible in this case?"
Harry replied, "Absolutely. Yeah, I'm sure. Throughout all these [Invictus] families I see it on a day-to-day basis the strength of the family unit coming together. I think any illness, any sickness brings families together."
Harry flew to the UK on the day it was announced his father had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer and admitted he "jumped" on a plane as soon as he possibly could after being given the news during a telephone conversation.
Asked how he received the news of his father's illness, he said, "I spoke to him. I jumped on a plane and went to go and see him as soon as I could." But Harry declined to offer "his outlook" on Charles' health. He said, "That stays between me and him."
The prince - who has four-year-old Prince Archie and two-year-old Princess Lilibet with wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex - has vowed to see his family in the UK "as much" as he is able to. He said, "I have my own family. As we all do. So my family, and my life in California, is as it is. I've got other trips planned that would take me through or back to the UK so I'll stop and see my family as much as I can."
