As we head into the new year, the rift between Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and the rest of the British royal family doesn't seem to be abating. According to royal expert Ingrid Seward, we should not expect Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's feud with Buckingham Palace to end in 2024.
Seward, who has covered the royal family for decades, believes that rift will "continue sadly" for the foreseeable future. There are several key reasons why a settlement is unlikely in the short term.
First, Prince Harry is still embroiled in several ongoing legal battles over how his safety in the UK is guaranteed. As Seward noted, Prince Harry is "really determined" to make sure he and his family are protected by the police, just as royalty is protected when visiting British territory.
Prince Harry inherited a lot of wealth from his late mother, Princess Diana, so it's not like he can't afford private security. However, it seems that his pride overcame him, refusing any police protection that is less than taxpayer funding.
He is filing a lawsuit against the UK** over the issue, which means that his tensions with his family back home are unlikely to be fully eased while the issue remains unresolved in court. We can expect that Prince Harry will continue to fight for this fight in public, which will further damage his relationship with the royal family.
To make matters worse, Seward said neither Prince Harry nor Meghan Markle were in a hurry to return to the UK to visit King Charles and other family members. In the summer of 2023, the king invited them to Balmoral Castle together, apparently extending an olive branch to them, but Prince Harry and Meghan Markle turned down the opportunity to hold a reconciliation summit.
Their long absence from most royal events and family gatherings, and now being away from home for the fifth Christmas in a row, says a lot. There is no doubt that nerves remain tense on both sides of the Atlantic.
It's no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle feel wronged by the company, and the breakdown in their relationship with the royal family is still painful to them today. They voiced their displeasure through a TV interview and Prince Harry's "Spare Tire" memoir, published in January 2023, which is sure to include more criticism of his royal relatives.
All this makes it difficult for them to fully reunite in the short term, especially as long as they continue to throw grenades from a distance. As Seward said, the royal family currently needs the approval of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle much less than Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
If the rift between the royal family and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle isn't serious enough, 2024 will bring more embarrassment and turmoil to the royal family, depending on what secrets Meghan Markle decides to reveal in her memoir, which is scheduled to be published early next year.
Considering that the couple has already provided a rather harsh preview in Oprah's extensive interview, it's hard to imagine that the book will have a lot of hits. The possibility of reconciliation seems as great as the queen jumping on her bicycle in the courtyard of the palace!
Some cynics believe that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may choose the moment to launch a new assault on the royal family, deliberately covering up important family moments, such as King Charles' birthday parade next year. Such an action would almost certainly guarantee the continuation of the icy relationship between the two sides.
However, a more optimistic view is that once everything about Prince Harry is gone in print, perhaps the dust will begin to settle. With the passage of time and the traumatic distance of "Megxit", the lingering resentment between the two camps may subside.
But for now, it's clear that this vendetta shows no signs of abating in 2024. With so many unanswered questions and all sorts of legal battles to deal with, the chances of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reconciling with the Windsor family seem rather slim next year.
Don't expect an olive branch or a repaired relationship. According to Seward, we are likely to see another rival branch of the House of Windsor parting ways for Christmas, with the ocean still tearing apart the once-closely connected family.
While we cannot rule out the possibility of some slight thaw on future visits or at *** Present, it is unreasonable to expect a full and final end to this heated bickering next year, based on the current frictions and rifts.
The divisions between the royal families are deep – perhaps deeper than the most experienced royal observers can currently calculate. Therefore, the feud between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and the Windsor family seems to continue until 2024, and as it stands, there is no end in sight.
It remains to be seen how long the hatred of Meghan's "Brexit" and its afterglow will cast a shadow over this once-happy family. But for now, despite King Charles' best efforts, there seems to be little choice but to wait for time and truth for these public royal wounds to heal one day.