Prince Harry and King Charles’ Royal Rift That Won’t Heal: ‘The Underlying Issue Is Trust’ (Exclusive)

As King Charles sat on a throne carved from Windsor trees at Canada’s Parliament on May 27, delivering a message of unity amid rising U.S.-Canada tensions, his estranged son Prince Harry was thousands of miles away in Shanghai.

Though briefly on the same continent, father and son remain emotionally worlds apart. “The True North is indeed strong and free,” Charles, 76, declared — earning praise for his statesmanship, even as he continues weekly cancer treatments.

“He could give a master class in diplomatic relations,” Ailsa Anderson, former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.

But another challenge looms — one no speech can fix: his fractured relationship with his son, who told the BBC in May: “I don’t know how much longer my father has… He won’t speak to me.”

The man Charles called his “darling boy” was meant to be “one of his reliable lieutenants he could call on to support the monarchy,” says royal historian Dr. Ed Owens, author of After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?

That vision unraveled in 2020 when Harry and Meghan Markle, 43, stepped back from royal duties and moved to Montecito, California. The rift deepened with bombshell interviews, their Netflix docuseries and Harry’s best-selling memoir Spare, which alleged a physical altercation with Prince William, 42.

While William remains firmly estranged from Harry and Meghan, some royal observers believe it’s King Charles — head of the Church of England and a longtime advocate for unity — who should take the first step. But inside palace walls, hesitation reigns.

At times, there has been a desire to reconnect — but “the underlying issue is trust,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith. “The King and William don’t trust Harry and Meghan with any kind of confidential conversation.”

Charles, insiders say, isn’t surrounded by voices encouraging reconciliation. William has shown no interest in extending an olive branch, and Queen Camilla, 77 — sharply criticized in Spare — “stays out of it,” says a source. Even senior aides like Clive Alderton, also mentioned in Harry’s memoir, are unlikely to push for a personal outreach.

“There is not a good angel in his ear to say, ‘Be a good dad and make the first move,’” says Valentine Low, author of the upcoming book Power and the Palace.

Despite Harry’s call for peace, his BBC comments were widely seen as another blow. “It wasn’t meant to be an attack, but it would be seen as one,” Low says. “It makes Charles reaching out even harder.”

And with the King still being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer, the stakes are growing. “If you have that level of breach in a family, and you are estranged, you run that risk every day of having something unfathomable to deal with,” says Catherine Mayer, author of Charles: The Heart of a King.

Even before recent events, Charles and Harry’s dynamic was complex. Harry, the son of a broken marriage, lost his mother, Princess Diana, in tragic and public circumstances.

Amid the rift with his father, Harry spoke with his uncle Charles Spencer about changing his family’s last name to his mother’s surname, Spencer, but was told the legal hurdles would be too great.

“There is so much baggage there that the idea that one meeting would resolve everything is ridiculous,” Mayer tells PEOPLE. “But having some contact would seem better than none.”

At the heart of the dispute is security. Harry says losing his official protection endangers his family, making him unwilling to bring Meghan and their children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, who turns 4 on June 4, to the U.K. He believes Charles can reverse the decision, but the palace says the courts have “examined [it] repeatedly and meticulously.”

Low warns that the split could “potentially damage [Charles’] legacy.” Still, he believes most people can separate the private drama from his public role: “This is a family rift rather than a constitutional rift — it’s what happens to families. Both sides have to reach a point where they realize they can’t carry on as they are.”

For now, father and son remain focused on their separate paths across the Atlantic. Harry, backed by a new communications team, is exploring new commercial ventures alongside his philanthropic work.

Charles, meanwhile, continues to show stamina. A senior aide noted after the Canada trip that the King is managing his illness amid “incredible advances” in medicine and is determined to live life “as normal as possible.”