"No one from the royal family, or any courtiers, actually called Harry to tell him of the monarch’s death."
Losing a grandmother is painful, and to find out about it from sources other than your family can definitely not be easy.
According to reports, Prince Harry found out about Queen Elizabeth's death by reading online reports. He only reached Balmoral, where his grandmother was living, hours after her passing while the rest of the family was already beside her.
The death of the Queen was announced at 6:30 pm local time, just moments before Harry landed at Aberdeen airport from London, having taken a private plane alone after not boarding the flight with his family.
Photos taken of the Duke of Sussex as he was driven to Balmoral showed “the strain and agony” on Harry’s face.
Prince Harry learned of Queen's death from online report: palace sources https://t.co/MetMVRV6xi pic.twitter.com/oasAiHAxhs
— New York Post (@nypost) September 22, 2022
"One highly placed Buckingham Palace insider told Page Six that Harry had been called to Scotland by his father, the new King Charles III, in the morning. However, another palace source confirmed that no one from the royal family, or any courtiers, actually called Harry to tell him of the monarch’s death — leaving him to find out from news reports when he landed late in the afternoon," the publication revealed.
Once he arrived, he was in the same room as his entire family, for the first time since he and his wife, Meghan Markle, had stepped down from their roles as working royals. But “after much criticism—on news sites as well as populist social media—about Harry being excluded from the family’s flights to and from Balmoral, it seemed they were making an effort to include him,” the outlet shared.
On September 9, 2022, a day after the Queen's death, King Charles III—in his first speech as the new monarch—seemingly offered an olive branch to his son and daughter-in-law, saying “I also want to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas.”
It was further revealed that the next day, William texted Harry, asking him to join him and the new Princess of Wales on a walkabout outside of Windsor Castle. “Insiders understood that this was William’s bid at rapprochement,” wrote Page Six.
Harry and Meghan reportedly flew home to California on September 21, 2022, two days after the funeral. They arrived in the country on September 3, and were hoping to stay for just a week, but ended up staying for 18 days.
Despite the ongoing tension, an insider told Page Six “I think that how Harry and Meghan showed up in the past few days shows they were only hoping to do the right thing and right by everyone.” The outlet cites Palace sources as confirming that William and Harry did talk at family dinners and gatherings, but that Harry’s forthcoming memoir—and its unknown contents—is “hanging over the royal family.”
References:
https://pagesix.com/2022/09/22/prince-harry-learned-of-queens-death-from-online-report/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Stephane de Sakutin - WPA Pool