Prince Harry Feels ‘Out in the Cold’ Amid Royal Rift, Meghan Markle’s UNEXPECTED MOVE Shakes Things Up – What’s Really Happening Behind the Scenes?

A source says that Meghan is focused on the future, while Harry has one foot in the past

(Right) Meghan Markle and Prince Harry at the 2025 TIME100 Summit on April 23, 2025 in New York City; (Right) King Charles at the State Opening of Parliament during an official visit to Canada on May 27, 2025 in Ottawa, Ontario.Credit : 

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are united in their support of each other, but they view the deep divide with the royal family from different perspectives.

“They’re aware of everything going on in England, but they’re being left out of the details — there’s clearly no trust,” a source close to the couple tells PEOPLE in this week’s exclusive cover story.

Meghan, who is focused on the future, while Harry has one foot in the past, “is very business about it,” the source says.

Through it all, Meghan stands firmly by Harry’s side — supporting him through his ongoing lawsuits and the painful rift with his family, but an insider says Meghan wishes her husband could feel less burdened by the past and more present in the life they’ve built together.

The rift between Prince Harry and his father King Charles is five years deep and remains one of the most painful fractures in Charles’ reign. Amid the King’s cancer diagnosis and Harry’s increasingly candid public pleas, the silence between them speaks volumes.

“I don’t know how much longer my father has,” Harry told the BBC on May 2 after losing a legal appeal to restore his automatic police protection in the U.K.

But it was a more personal admission that landed harder: “He won’t speak to me.”

PEOPLE Magazine, June 16, 2025.

The father and son were briefly on the same continent in late May, when King Charles, 76, traveled to Canada to attend the State Opening of Parliament, but emotionally remain worlds apart.

The man the King once called his “darling boy” was meant to be “one of his reliable lieutenants he could call on to support the monarchy” says royal historian Dr. Ed Owens, author of After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?, but that vision never came to fruition.

Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties and moved to Montecito, California in 2020 amid mounting tensions that became public. The rift deepened with bombshell interviews, their Netflix docuseries and Harry’s best-selling memoir Spare, which alleged a physical altercation with his brother, Prince William.

While William remains estranged from Harry and Meghan, some royal observers believe it’s King Charles, as head of the Church of England and a longtime advocate for unity, who should make the first move.

But inside palace walls, hesitation reigns.

King Charles and Prince Harry arrive at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle ahead of the committal service for Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 19, 2022.

At times, there has been a desire to reconnect — but “the underlying issue is trust,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith. “The King and William don’t trust Harry and Meghan with any kind of confidential conversation.”

Insiders add that the King isn’t surrounded by voices encouraging reconciliation. Prince William, 42, has shown no interest in extending an olive branch, while Queen Camilla — sharply criticized in Spare — “stays out of it,” says a source.

Even senior aides including Clive Alderton, who was also named in Harry’s memoir, are unlikely to encourage outreach.

“There is not a good angel in his ear to say, ‘Be a good dad and make the first move,’ ” says Valentine Low, author of the upcoming book Power and the Palace.

Despite Harry’s plea for peace, his BBC comments were widely seen as another blow. “It wasn’t meant to be an attack, but it would be seen as one,” says Low. “It makes Charles reaching out even harder.”

The King’s weekly cancer treatments add further urgency to the idea of healing the relationship before it’s too late.

“It’s been difficult for him to even get proper updates about his dad,” the source says, underscoring just how deep the divide has become.

“If you have that level of breach in a family, and you are estranged, you run that risk every day of having something unfathomable to deal with,” says Catherine Mayer, author of Charles: The Heart of a King.

Even before recent events, Charles and Harry’s bond was complicated. Harry, the son of a broken marriage, lost his mother, Princess Diana, in tragic and public circumstances when he was 12.

Amid the rift with his father, Harry spoke with his uncle Charles Spencer about changing his family’s last name to Princess Diana’s surname, Spencer, but was told the legal challenges would be insurmountable. That decision would directly affect the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.

Prince Archie, Prince Harry and Princess Lilibet.Meghan, Duchess of Sussex/Instagram

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“There is so much baggage there that the idea that one meeting would resolve everything is ridiculous,” Mayer tells PEOPLE. “But having some contact would seem better than none.”