The Queen’s death and the funeral is an “opportunity for peacemaking” for William and Harry, says Oprah Winfrey.
The United States talkshow host carried out an explosive interview with the Sussexes last year which deepened the rift between them and other members of the Royal Family.
Harry and Meghan left the UK in 2020 having had a frictious relationship with other royals and have now made home in California where they have spoken regularly to the US media about their problems with other members of Harry’s family.
Speaking to Oprah, in 2021, Harry talked about how he needed to break the cycle and bring his family up away from the Royal Family and the glare of publicity.
And Meghan alleged racism and that a royal had questioned what would be the skin colour of her future child.
Now, following the death of the Queen, Oprah has said that she hopes that the process of “burying your dead” will help to heal the rift between the warring brothers.
"I think in all families - you know, my father passed recently, this summer - and when all families come together for a common ceremony, the ritual of, you know, burying your dead, there’s an opportunity for peacemaking," she told Extra.
"And hopefully, there will be that."
It had been pure coincidence that Harry was in Britain when the Queen died, and there had been no plans announced for him to see his family during his visit from the United States where he and Meghan were attending charity engagements.
In happier times, Harry and his grandmother the Queen enjoyed a close, playful rapport, glimpsed by the wider public in 2016 when they appeared together in a comic video, reacting to a mic drop taunt from Barack and Michelle Obama ahead of the Invictus Games, a competition for disabled veterans which Harry has promoted.
But the outspoken criticism in the media had made the relationship with the Royal Family fraught and during the Queen’s Jubilee in June the Sussexes only had a peripheral role in the ceremonies with Harry having walked away from public life.
In the Sussexes latest trip to the UK, there had appeared no intention for Harry and William to meet up despite being neighbours in Windsors.
That, though, changed with the death of the Queen and the Sussexes along with the Cambridges were seen together at Windsor Castle to meet crowds who had gathered to pay their respects to the monarch last Saturday.
