Harry and Meghan ‘Have Nothing to Say Sorry For’ as Palace Rift Deepens

Some questions never really go away. They just wait quietly in the background, and then, at exactly the wrong moment, they come back louder than before. For Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, one of those questions has followed them for years: who should say sorry first? Now a new report has given what may be the bluntest answer yet, and it is not the answer many royal watchers were expecting. According to the report, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not believe they owe anyone an apology at all. In fact, the claim goes further than that. It suggests that, in their circle at least, the feeling runs in the opposite direction entirely.

The report was published by The News on the morning of 2 November, and it draws on royal expert Emily Andrew, who was speaking to Woman & Home. Her message was short, direct, and impossible to misunderstand. She said the couple are not going to apologise, because, in the words of those she has spoken to, they have absolutely nothing to say sorry for. She added that, if anything, they still deserve an apology for the way they were treated. It is a striking claim, because it closes a door that many people had assumed was still at least slightly open. Reconciliation, in this telling, is not waiting on a Sussex apology. It is waiting on something else altogether.

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To understand why this matters, it helps to remember where the couple are right now. Harry and Meghan returned to the United Kingdom in August, after six years living in the United States following their decision to step back from working royal life in early 2020. Their return was one of the most talked-about royal moves of the year, and their first joint public outing back in Britain, a visit to Nottingham, drew warm crowds and plenty of comment. For a brief moment, it looked as though a new chapter might be opening, one in which the couple could be present in Britain again without the old arguments flaring up straight away. The weeks since then, however, have told a more complicated story.

That complication has two parts, and they are tangled together. The first is the family rift itself, which has never truly healed. Harry has spoken openly in recent interviews about wanting reconciliation with his brother, Prince William, and the wider family, and that desire has been widely reported. Yet wanting a better relationship and agreeing on who was at fault are two very different things. A family can want peace and still disagree completely about the past, and that is where this latest report lands. It suggests that, whatever Harry may have said about reconciliation in general, the couple do not see an apology from their side as the missing piece.

The second part is the pressure the couple are under right now for reasons that have nothing to do with palace protocol. According to the same report, Harry and Meghan are currently away with their children while schools in the United Kingdom are on half-term break, and they have paused their public engagements for the time being. That pause comes as Meghan deals with deeply distressing headlines about her estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr., who is the subject of reported investigations into serious allegations. He has denied the allegations. Meghan herself has said she is deeply distressed by what has come to light, and people close to her have described her as really struggling, while also noting that friends are checking in with her daily. It is, by any measure, an exceptionally difficult moment to be asked to think about royal diplomacy.

Put those two parts together and the picture becomes clearer, and sadder. On one side, there is a public conversation about apologies, invitations, and who should make the first move. On the other side, there is a private family dealing with a painful and frightening situation that is largely outside their control. The expert’s claim does not come from a palace statement or from the couple themselves, and readers should keep that firmly in mind. It comes from an expert speaking to a magazine, reporting what she has been told by people around the couple. But even as reported opinion, it tells us something important about the mood inside the Sussex camp: there is no appetite there, at least right now, for a public act of contrition.

It is also worth asking what an apology would even mean at this stage. The Sussex story is no longer one argument about one event. It is a long chain of events, interviews, books, and decisions, stretching back to their wedding, their time as working royals, their move to America, and everything that has been said since. Each side remembers that chain differently. The palace has generally preferred silence and steady duty to public explanation. Harry and Meghan have preferred to tell their own story, in their own words, and to say plainly when they felt unsupported. In that kind of stand-off, a single apology rarely fixes anything, because each side is waiting for the other to acknowledge a completely different version of events.

That is why the expert’s second line matters just as much as the first. Saying the couple deserve an apology themselves flips the usual question on its head. For years, much of the public debate has asked when Harry and Meghan might apologise to the King, to William, or to the institution. This report asks the reader to consider the reverse: what if the couple believe the apology is owed to them? That does not make either version true, and it certainly does not settle the argument. But it does explain why the rift has lasted so long. If both sides privately believe the other side should go first, then nobody goes first, and the silence simply continues.

The timing of the report is also significant. It arrives while the couple are out of the spotlight, taking a break from engagements during the school half-term. A pause like that is often read in two opposite ways. Supporters see a family protecting its privacy and its children during a hard week. Critics see a couple stepping back just when questions are mounting. The truth is probably simpler and more human than either reading. A break gives a family room to breathe. It gives friends a chance to visit without cameras nearby. It gives a mother time to be with her children without every outing becoming a headline. None of that is dramatic, but all of it matters when the headlines are this heavy.

There is another question hiding underneath all of this, and it is the one that will probably decide what happens next. Does the palace actually want a public reconciliation on these terms, or does it prefer the current quiet distance? Recent reporting has suggested that the palace does not want to become involved in matters concerning Meghan’s father, and that the King and the Prince and Princess of Wales are focused on their own duties. If that is right, then the apology debate may be something of a sideshow. The real decision may not be about words at all, but about whether the two sides can find a way to be in the same country, and occasionally the same room, without every meeting becoming a test of who surrendered first.

For now, though, the message from this latest report is clear, and it should be treated for exactly what it is: reported expert opinion, not a confirmed position from the couple. Harry and Meghan, it is claimed, do not feel they need to say sorry. They do not feel they need to confront the King and Prince William over past troubles with an apology. And people close to them, as described by the expert, believe the apology should flow the other way. Whether that view ever softens, and whether anything changes when the couple return to public life after their break, is something only time will show. What seems certain is that the old question is not going away. It has simply been answered, for the moment, with a firm and unexpected no.

What This Means: If this reported view is accurate, it suggests the royal rift is stuck not because nobody wants peace, but because the two sides disagree about what peace would require. A reconciliation built on a Sussex apology looks unlikely on this reading, and so does a reconciliation built on a palace apology. The more realistic path, if there is one, may be a quieter one: fewer public statements, more private contact, and a gradual return to normal appearances without anyone being asked to admit fault in public. That kind of slow thaw would not satisfy people who want a dramatic moment of forgiveness, but it may be the only kind that both sides can live with. It also means the couple’s current pause should not be read as a retreat from Britain. A family under intense personal strain stepping back for a school holiday is ordinary, and the test will be what they do when they return, not what is said about them while they are away.

Key Takeaways:

• A new report published on 2 November says Harry and Meghan feel they have nothing to apologise for to the royal family.
• Royal expert Emily Andrew, speaking to Woman & Home as reported by The News, is quoted as saying the couple deserve an apology for the way they were treated.
• The claim is reported expert opinion, not a statement from Harry, Meghan, Buckingham Palace, King Charles or Prince William.
• The couple are reported to be away with their children during the UK school half-term break, with public engagements paused for now.
• Meghan is described in the same report as really struggling amid the reported investigation concerning her estranged father, who denies the allegations, with friends checking in daily.

Q: Have Harry and Meghan said they will not apologise to the royal family?
A: No direct statement from the couple has been reported. The claim comes from royal expert Emily Andrew speaking to Woman & Home, as reported by The News on 2 November, who said she has been told they have nothing to say sorry for and deserve an apology themselves.

Q: Why is the apology question being discussed again now?
A: Because the couple returned to the UK in August after six years in the United States, made a joint public visit to Nottingham, and have since paused engagements during the school half-term break, which has renewed debate about their relationship with King Charles and Prince William.

Q: What has Meghan said about her father’s case?
A: Meghan has previously said she is deeply distressed by what has come to light, and that she was given assurances years ago that troubling allegations against her father were being investigated. The allegations are reported and under investigation, and Thomas Markle Sr. has denied them.

Q: Does this report mean reconciliation is now impossible?
A: No. It reports one expert’s view of the mood around the couple at this moment. Reconciliation could still take a quieter, private form, and the report itself does not come from either side of the family, so it should not be treated as a final decision by anyone.