Prince Harry deflects interview question about whether he misses his brother and father

Prince Harry has spoken candidly about whether he misses his family after stepping down from his role as a senior member of the royal family and relocating to the US with wife Meghan Markle.

The Duke of Sussex was asked about his relationships with his family during an interview with Today’s Hoda Kotb from The Hague, The Netherlands, where Harry is currently attending the fifth Invictus Games.

“Do you miss your family?” Kotb asked the duke, to which he responded: “Yes, especially over the last two years. For most people, have they not missed their family? Right, the ability to get home? Of course, you know, that’s a huge part of it.”

However, Kotb then asked the royal whether he misses his father Prince Charles and his brother Prince William specifically, a question Prince Harry deflected as he discussed his Invictus family and his own family at home in California with Meghan Markle. The couple share son Archie, two, and daughter Lilibet, 10 months.

“For me, at the moment, I’m here to focus on these guys and these families, and giving everything I can,” Harry said of the Invictus competitors and their families. “To make sure that they have the experience of a lifetime.

“That’s my focus here, and then I leave here, I get back, and my focus is my family, who I miss massively.”

The royal’s visit to the UK last week, during which he also reportedly saw Prince Charles, marks only the third time that Prince Harry has returned home since he and Meghan stepped down in March 2020 and moved to California. The duke previously returned for his grandfather Prince Philip’s funeral, as well as for a statue unveiling of his late mother Princess Diana.

The duke’s deflection of the question regarding his brother and father comes amid rumours of a rift among the family, which is said to have been deepened following Prince Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March of last year.

During the sit-down interview, the couple made a number of concerning claims about their time as senior members of the royal family, including, at one point, claiming that there were “several conversations” about what colour their then-unborn son’s skin would be.

Prince Harry also told Winfrey that his father had stopped taking his calls, telling the former talk-show host: “I feel really let down because he’s been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like and Archie’s his grandson.” At the time, Harry, who acknowledged that there was “a lot of hurt that’s happened” in his relationship with his father, said that his priority was still mending their relationship.

The duke did not seem to see a future of reconcilliation with the Duke of Cambridge, however, as he told Winfrey that the brothers were on “different paths”.

While Prince Harry chose to avoid the question about his father and brother while speaking with Kotb, he did speak openly about his relationship with the Queen, with the royal telling the Today host that he and the monarch have a “special relationship”.

Prince Harry also discussed whether he and Meghan would be attending the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, explaining that various security concerns are preventing them from making a decision, but that he would like for his children to meet his grandmother.