The last few months have been a difficult time for the Royal Family, but in a significant update and major boost to the monarchy, Buckingham Palace has announced that King Charles has progressed well enough during his cancer treatment to return to some public duties.

And there might be another bright spark coming up in the weeks ahead. Prince Harry is set to head back to his home country for a special anniversary service marking 10 years of the Invictus Games at St Paul's Cathedral. The last time Harry visited the UK was for a brief trip to see Charles back in February after the King's diagnosis was first announced.

The trip was pretty last minute in nature, and so the King was reported to only be able to squeeze in a short visit, before heading off to Sandringham. One royal expert has claimed that given the health challenges the royals are dealing with, when Harry next returns, its "likely" he will reunite with Prince William and that Charles may even try to facilitate it a truce between the warring brothers.

The expert, former royal butler Grant Harrold, also noted that in his view, King Charles will likely be hoping to "play peacemaker" between his two sons, who have long had a strained relationship.

"It is very likely that Harry and William will see each other next month and anything is possible," Harrold explained to Sky News Australia, adding, "The King will want the brothers to patch things up so it's more than likely that he could play peacemaker."

Harrold explained that family is of the utmost importance to the King, a value he inherited from his late mother Queen Elizabeth. "Family means everything to the King, like his mother and one of his top priorities will be to ensure that this family rift is healed," said the expert.

In Harry's bestselling memoir, which was released in 2023, he described a meeting that took place between himself, William, and Charles back in 2021, after Prince Philip's funeral, only weeks after the Sussexes' bombshell interview with Oprah had aired, during which Meghan admitted that she had serious mental health struggles during her time as a working royal, and even suffered from suicidal thoughts, and Harry said that his brother and father were "trapped" inside the monarchy.

As Harry described it, tensions rose quickly in the meeting with his father and brother after they had laid Philip to rest, and Charles pleaded with his sons to get along, saying "Please boys, don't make my final years a misery".

A version of this article as published on 13 April 2024.

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