Windsor, England – The UK was in a period of national mourning on Monday, remembering the life of Prince Philip, the Duke of EdinburghQueen Elizabeth II’s husband, over 70, died last week at the age of 99. As CBS News’ Holly Williams reports, the funeral will take place Saturday at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
It will be a small, private service thanks to COVID-19 restrictions limiting meetings to 30 people, and according to the wishes of the deceased duke. But as a former royal correspondent told CBS News, it may still offer the potential to help heal a rift between two key members of the younger generation of the royal family and the loved ones they felt the need to distance themselves from. Search.
Prince Harry was back in England on Monday, isolated himself for the mandatory five days under UK coronavirus rules to attend the funeral.
For decades, Philip was considered by some to be the power behind the throne, but historian and former BBC correspondent Wesley Kerr told CBS News that a generational shift had already taken place within the monarchy.
“The Queen has done a lot less anyway, even before COVID,” Kerr said. “All major overseas tours are now done by [Princes] Charles and William. That has been happening for a while. “
The younger members of the House of Windsor are a more complicated couple than the monarch and her late husband, who seemed happily married for 73 years.
Prince Andrew paid tribute to his father – the first time he had been heard of since the Jeffrey Epstein scandal ended his public role as a royal family – and described his mother as stoic in the face of her loss, which he said that it had left “a huge void in her life.”
“I’m very sorry and support my mom, who I think probably feels it more than anyone else,” Andrew said on Sunday.
While Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s pregnancy, will keep her away from the funeral, her husband Prince Harry will be there to honor his grandfather. The service this weekend comes just weeks after Meghan and Harry’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they voiced allegations of racism within the royal family.
“I think he will be greeted by his grandmother, by his father, by his brother and his cousins as a close relative,” Kerr predicted. “I think they will love to see him.”
“ He and his wife closed their hearts whatever their beef was, ” Kerr said, noting that, according to the Queen herself, “ memories within the royal family differ ” on some of the young royals’ claims, and some of their claims – for example, having been quietly married three days before their wedding – have been downright rejected.
Now Kerr said the time is right to try to mitigate any emotional damage.
“I think the most important thing I think will be togetherness, especially at the funeral of a great patriarch,” he said. “Ultimately, this is Harry’s family. I know Meghan has a family, but this is really both his family and Meghan, and I think the theme will be reconciliation… reconciliation is always a very, very powerful theme at a funeral. ”
Kerr, no stranger to the consideration of the British public or the British press for the royals, said he did not expect significant backlash against Harry over the Oprah interview.
“I think there will be comments in the papers and then in the comments below, just as it has been for several weeks,” he said. He and the Duchess chose to give the interview and they chose to express their views. So it is inevitable that comments will come about, some favorable, some less so. ‘
“For me, the key is really the Queen, Prince Charles, William – that’s the future. That’s the institution’s most important future. But Harry remains an important member of the royal family,” Kerr said, suggesting he and Meghan were has become a kind of ‘North American branch’ of the family that the Queen herself apparently calls ‘The Firm’.
While Kerr remarked that the Duke and Duchess were clear focused on their new, independent businesses as non-working royals“He’s definitely still a member of the Royal Family – he’s definitely Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. She’s definitely the Duchess of Sussex. So I guess the point is that she’s still very much members of the Royal Family. to be.”
Kerr said it was possible that Harry and Meghan would return to more visible members of that family at some point, and that he would personally be “delighted” to see that.
He also noted that not far on the horizon looms a new opportunity to build on any reconciliation coming this week as the royal family mourns the loss of their patriarch.
“I think he will be back on July 1, if it doesn’t coincide with the birth of the child, to unveil the new statue to Diana,” Kerr said, referring to Prince Harry’s expected attendance at the official unveiling ceremony. a statue of his deceased mother this summer.
“So I think, you know, there are disputes in a family, but there is also reconciliation.”
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On Monday, from his self-isolation at Frogmore Cottage on the Royal Estate in Windsor, Prince Harry issued a statement praising his late grandfather as ‘a man of service, honor and great humor’, whom he said he, for him , first and foremost was. especially “grandpa: master of the barbecue, legend of chatter, and cheeky to the end.”
“He was authentically himself, with a seriously sharp wit, and could hold the attention of any room because of his charm – and also because you never knew what he would say next,” Harry said, adding, “Meghan, Archie and me. (as well as your future great-granddaughter) will always have a special place for you in our hearts. ”