HARRY & CHARLES Reunited at Last

AFTER 19 MONTHS APART, FATHER AND SON MEET FOR A PRIVATE TEA AT CLARENCE HOUSE—A FIRST STEP TOWARD RECONCILIATION

- By SIMON PERRY

Building Bridges "At his core Harry [in Nottingham on Sept. 9] would want a good relationship with his father," a close source says.

Prince Harry’s four-day visit to the U.K. this September felt unlike any he’s made since stepping back from royal life five years ago. Traveling solo—his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, 44, and their children Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, remained home in Montecito, Calif.—Harry threw himself into public engagements with palpable enthusiasm. It was a far cry from the Harry, 41, seen on recent visits, when court appearances and legal battles overshadowed everything else. This was not the Duke of Sussex under scrutiny but the Harry people remembered—approachable, playful, in his element. And on the rainy afternoon of Sept. 10, that energy carried him through the gates of Clarence House, where he disappeared inside for a long-awaited private tea with his father, King Charles, 76.

Fifty-three minutes later he emerged—a historic and emotional encounter behind him, and the fragile possibility of reconciliation ahead. “It’s a massive step in the right direction,” says Queen Elizabeth’s former press secretary Ailsa Anderson. “It’s a building of trust.”