Prince Harry never said his brother’s name, and that single vague line was all it took to drag the royal rift back into the open.

Harry, the Duke of Sussex, 42, told GQ in an interview published Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, that he wants to repair his complicated relationships with his brother, Prince William, and his father, King Charles III.

“Some people don’t want it to work out. I want it to work out. With everything else that’s going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile — that’s the key point,” Harry told GQ. He named no one. Readers took the line as a reference to the brother he has not spoken to in four years, and Harry’s office moved to shut that reading down.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex denied that the remark was aimed at William and said the comment was made in a general context. “It was absolutely not intended as a swipe at his brother or any other member of his family,” the spokesperson said.

The interview went live as the royal family welcomed the Sultan of Oman to Windsor Castle at the start of a state visit. A spokesman for the Sussexes said the publisher alone decided when to run the piece and that nothing should be read into the date.

GQ’s Zach Baron recorded the 42-minute conversation in New York in late September for the magazine’s weekly “One More Question” series.

A British School and a Move Home

Harry, Meghan and their two children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, moved back to Britain in late August, six years after the couple stepped down as working royals and settled in California in 2020.

GQ asked him why he came back. “Opportunities for the family. Being able to put the kids in a British school has meant a lot to me. I didn’t know how important it was to me.”

The couple have resumed public appearances since the move, with three engagements together in Nottingham on Thursday, Oct. 15, their first joint outing since the return. Charles made clear in a letter that the two came back as private citizens, not working royals.

The Grief Class Behind the Interview

The conversation was built around Harry’s MasterClass on grief, “Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss,” which he co-taught with neuroscientist Mary-Frances O’Connor. He is believed to have been paid up to $100,000 for the 90-minute session, in which he discussed coping with the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, when he was 12.

Asked whether he grieves the relationships with his brother and his father, Harry said yes. He framed the breakdown as something strangers raise with him constantly — sibling disagreements, and broken relationships between children and their parents.

“Scars stick around forever,” he said, though he urged people to let go of the past. He said he does not want public sympathy, pointing to the support network and therapy available to him as a prince. Staying quiet, he added, does not stop the stories.

Charles has been treated for an undisclosed form of cancer. Asked whether the illness has brought on a kind of anticipatory grief, Harry replied: “Yes, but he’s getting better.” He saw the king at Highgrove House in July, and the two are not known to have met since the family’s return, though they are believed to have spoken by phone.

Last Seen at an Uncle’s Funeral

The brothers were last known to be in each other’s company in August 2024, at the funeral of their uncle, Lord Fellowes. They are not believed to have spoken there.

Harry laid out the depth of the split in his 2023 memoir, “Spare.” He described a 2019 argument at his London home that escalated after William called Meghan “difficult,” “rude” and “abrasive.” His brother, he wrote, grabbed him by the collar, ripped his necklace and knocked him to the floor, where he landed on a dog’s bowl that cracked under his back.

He showed an appetite for peace earlier, in a BBC interview in May 2025, while he was still living in the U.S. He said then that he would love to reconcile with his family and that there was no point in continuing to fight. The battles he considered necessary have now been fought, he said, and he hopes to draw a line under the conflict and leave it behind for the greater good.

Piers Morgan Calls Him a Flame-Thrower

Piers Morgan branded Harry a “flame-thrower” in response to the interview. “Flame-thrower wants to make peace with the people whose houses he torched and is baffled they’re not interested,” he wrote on X on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Royal author Robert Jobson called Harry a “man-child” over the interview in a newspaper column published Saturday, Oct. 24, and urged action against the Sussexes. “Every time they let this man-child walk all over them, it costs them more,” he wrote, adding: “Strip the Sussex titles. Take them off the royal website. They don’t do the work, so why are they listed beside those who do?”