Prince Harry shared a short but potentially telling update on the health of his father, King Charles, as the monarch continues treatment for cancer.
Harry and his family, consisting of wife Meghan Markle and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, made headlines in August when they relocated to the UK from Montecito, California.
In a new interview with GQ – released on the back of a MasterClass course focusing on the subject of grief – Harry talked up about the loss of his mother, the late Princess Diana, when he was 12, as well as describing his approach in dealing with his father’s ongoing health issues.
King Charles, 77, was diagnosed with cancer in February, 2024. Though the exact type of cancer remains unknown to the general public and detailed updates as to his condition have been predictably non-existent, the palace previously said that he was responding well and moving into a precautionary phase of care.
In their sit-down, GQ journalist Zach Baron told Prince Harry that his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years ago. He revealed that while he is doing well, he feels like he has been contending with an “almost a kind of anticipatory grief.”
Baron then asked Harry if he had similar feelings given his father’s battle with the illness, to which Harry replied: “Yes, I have. And I think that that is perhaps helpful.
“It’s the one thing that we are all going to experience, which is the loss of a parent, both parents, and the loss of friends. That’s universal.”
The journalist then asked if the loss of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, in 1997 had made Charles’ cancer diagnosis and subsequent fight triggering.
It was then that Harry appeared to give an update as to his father’s condition, saying: “Yes, but he’s getting better.”
He continued: “I think there’s a big difference between losing one parent and losing two. From the friends of mine that have lost two, they go, ‘Well, now I’m an orphan, even if you’re in your 40s or 50s.’
“I’d never heard someone say that to me before. I was like, ‘Wow, I hadn’t considered that.’ But then also I’ve always thought to myself since I was a young kid, and in conversations with other friends of mine, which is, ‘If you had a choice, what would you choose to have a parent ripped away from you suddenly without any preparation, or having the long-term suffering, but the ability to say goodbye?’
“And it turns out that there is no answer because I’ve got friends and family who are suffering from cancer.
“I’ve had a mom that was taken away from me too soon, and I have spoken very openly about one of my biggest regrets is that last phone call I had with her.
“If I’d known it was the last call with her, how different that conversation would’ve been. And I’m the one that has to live with that. And the fact that as a 12-year-old kid, all I wanted to do was go off and run and play with my cousins.”
In the same interview, Harry expressed a desire to repair the fractured relationships with his father and brother, Prince William.
“Some people don’t want it to work out,” Harry said. “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.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the “some people” comment was construed in the media as a potential dig at the Royal Family. A spokesperson for Harry, however, later clarified that the phrase was “absolutely not intended as a swipe at his brother or any other member of his family.”
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