When Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle stepped down from their positions as senior working royals, the duke’s relationship with father King Charles III dissipated.
“My family literally cut me off financially, and I [needed to be able to] afford security for us,” the Duke of Sussex alleged in his bombshell CBS interview in March 2021. “[I was cut off] in the first quarter of 2020. But I’ve got what my mom [Princess Diana, who died in August 1997] left me and without that, we would not have been able to do this.”
Harry and Meghan, who wed in May 2018, had been living off an income provided by the English crown and controlled by Charles. After the married couple decided to take a step back from their royal duties, His Majesty was also reluctant to speak to them.
“I will always love him, but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened,” Harry added at the time. “I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship.”
Harry and Meghan eventually relocated from London to Montecito, California, where they are raising their two children: Prince Archie, born in 2019, and Princess Lilibet, born in 2021.
Charles has not publicly addressed the family rift but did reunite with Harry at the April 2021 funeral for his late father, Prince Philip, the September 2022 funeral for his late mother, Queen Elizabeth III, and Charles’ May 2023 coronation.