King Charles III has been warned "a very hard-nosed royal family may find that it didn't maintain popular support" if "no mercy is shown" to Prince Harry.
The British media has been awash with stories speculating on a possible return by the Duke of Sussex to the country of his birth.
While the idea of Harry leaving America might be best taken with a pinch of salt, it prompted arch British Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg to suggest the royals might benefit from forgiving him during his GB News show.
The former minister of state for Brexit in Boris Johnson's government said: "I think the real difficulty is that anything that people have said to Prince Harry has then appeared in a book, and it's very hard to rebuild that trust.
"On the other hand, he is a charismatic figure. He is popular still, particularly with younger people, not perhaps as much as the old brigade like us, but with younger people.
"It's going to be very difficult if he wants to come back, because the monarchy is the founder of mercy as well as of justice. And I just wonder what the British people will think in 10 years time, if no mercy is shown.
"So I think there may be a way back for him in due course, and that a very hard-nosed royal family may find that it didn't maintain popular support."
Rees-Mogg's comments are notable in particular because Harry is so unpopular with British Conservatives.
A recent YouGov survey gave him a net approval rating of minus 68 among people who voted for Rees-Mogg's party in the July general election compared to plus 90 for Prince William and plus 78 for the king.
If Charles were to offer Harry the chance to return to royal duties—and it may well be neither side wants this outcome—one major obstacle might in fact be William.
Harry has freely admitted the pair were not on speaking terms and had not texted during an interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes in January 2023.
Spare, the younger prince's memoir, spilled a multitude of royal secrets, including a detailed account of a private conversation between Harry, Prince William and Charles in the hours after Prince Philip's funeral. It also accused William of physically attacking him.
The duke defended his decision on the basis of leaks in the British press about himself and his wife, Meghan Markle.
"Every single time I've tried to do it privately there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife," Harry told Cooper.
"You know, the family motto is never complain, never explain. But it's just a motto. And it doesn't really hold."
"He's got to come back in a very measured way," Rees-Mogg said. "That means that when they have lunch with him, they're only talking about the front page of the Daily Mail rather than their innermost secrets, because they won't want it to appear in a book."
Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
