'All-time low': Why expert says Harry and Meghan will never come back to royal fold
A royal expert has declared the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will never come back to the royal fold, with Prince Harry's book Spare blamed for sounding the death knell for the couple's return.
Journalist and author Katie Nicholl, who has been the royal correspondent for Vanity Fair since 2010, made the claim during a recent episode of the podcast Dynasty: The Royal Family's Most Challenging Year, which she co-hosts alongside Erin Vanderhoof.
During the podcast, Nicholl said the relationship between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and senior members of the royal family was at an "all-time low."
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex following a thanksgiving service marking Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Getty
Nicholl is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on the British royal family and has authored a number of books on the subject.
During a recent episode entitled The Truth About Meghan, Harry, and Their California Dream, Nicholl was asked directly if she thought Harry and Meghan would ever come back to the royal family.
"I don't actually. I don't think they will. I think the best we can hope for is some sort of reconciliation between Harry and his father," she said.
Nicoll said it was Prince Harry's 2023 book Spare that was "one of the final nails in the coffin."
Nicholl says Prince Harry's book was the final nail in the coffin for the couple. Getty Images for the Invictus Ga
"Part of the problem was Harry revealing private conversations, really really intimate family moments that certainly the king and the Prince of Wales would have expected to be kept private," Nicholl said.
"And of course this was all sort of blown open. That sense that he was just airing his dirty linen in public. It's certainly not what the royals do.
"As fascinating and jaw-dropping as the book was, it was also accompanied by a sense of shock that he'd actually done this.
"In terms of the familial relationships, I'm not going to say it was the final nail in the coffin, but I think it was one of the final nails in the coffin."
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Nicholl also described the "watershed moment" in which Harry was "so critical" of senior members of the royal family, including his stepmother.
"The fact that he was so critical of Queen Camilla as the Duchess of Cornwall and some of the allegations that he made about her sort of allowing him to take the heat over her so that she came out better in stories and how she'd always set her eyes on becoming Queen, which simply wasn't the case," Nicholl said.
Though Harry and Meghan may not return, Nicholl says there could be a chance for reconciliation. Getty Images for W+P
"I think all of that was quite insulting actually and upsetting for the King. I think Harry probably crossed a line there in terms of his relationship with his father."
She said Harry's decision to drag his sister-in-law Catherine into the fight had caused great friction with his brother, Prince William.
"I think some of the things that were said about Catherine. I mean you can sort of look at the lip gloss episode... It was dragging her into something that she had always stayed so far removed from in the same way they dragged her into the whole issue over the bridesmaid fitting and the tight wearing and the upset that is caused over Oprah.
Then Prince Charles speaks with the Duchess of Sussex during a Commonwealth Day service in 2019. Getty
"And you just think, you know, they could have just left these things alone and perhaps the relationship would be in a much better place today if they had."
Nicholl's Dynasty co-host Erin Vanderhoof said the stories of a rift between Catherine and Meghan also "set the tone for Team William and Team Harry" lines to be drawn.
Nicholl said the fact Harry and Meghan did not advise the palace before their recent trip to Nigeria showed how great the divide between the couple and the royal family was.
"I think relations are at such an all-time low that that actual courtesy call that might have gone out at some point is simply never made," she said.
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