Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are not preparing to apologize to Prince William and Kate Middleton over their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, a source close to the couple said, rejecting a London tabloid report published Oct. 6, 2026, that cast such an apology as the Sussexes’ opening move toward peace with the royal family.
A source close to Harry, 42, and Meghan, 45, told PEOPLE the report was “nonsense.” Two royal writers who cover the couple said separately that they had been told the same thing.
What the Report Claimed
The Oct. 6 story centered on the most incendiary moment of the Winfrey interview, broadcast in March 2021: Meghan’s account that members of the royal family had discussed how dark her first child’s skin might be before he was born. Neither she nor Harry identified the relative involved. Citing an unnamed source, the report said the couple had come to view the interview as their single greatest regret, that they believed they had gone too far, and that they were seeking a sit-down with the Prince and Princess of Wales at which Meghan would apologize.
Royal Writers Dismiss the Story
Royal journalist Tom Sykes, author of “The Dukes,” spoke to Page Six on Wednesday, Oct. 7. “It is total rubbish,” he said, adding that a source close to Harry had told him the apology account was invented and that Harry has long maintained he will not apologize for anything.
Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield, host of the “Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered” podcast, told Page Six the same day that her own sources had assured her the story was false and that she saw no evidence of a change of heart. “Prince Harry and Meghan remain defiant,” she said.
Still No Thaw With William
Harry has been in contact with his father since returning to Britain. King Charles III, 77, met the family at Highgrove in July so he could see his grandchildren, the first visit to include Meghan and the children in four years. The brothers remain estranged, and a source previously described the standoff as unchanged, with William in particular showing no sign of shifting. William and Kate have largely avoided commenting publicly on the Sussexes since the move.
The breach traces back through a series of very public ruptures: the couple’s January 2020 announcement that they would step back as senior working royals, their subsequent move to Montecito, Calif., the Winfrey interview, the six-part Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan” in late 2022 and Harry’s memoir “Spare,” published in January 2023. The book, which included a claim that William physically attacked him during a 2019 argument, became one of the fastest-selling nonfiction titles on record and widened the rift between the brothers.
Meghan also told Winfrey that she had experienced suicidal thoughts while a working royal and did not receive the help she sought, and that it was Kate who had made her cry before the couple’s 2018 wedding, not the reverse, as the British press had reported. Buckingham Palace responded with a brief statement on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, saying the issues raised, particularly those of race, were concerning and would be addressed privately by the family, while noting that recollections of events may differ. Days afterward, Gayle King, host of “CBS This Morning,” said on the program that Harry had spoken with both his father and his brother and that she had been told those conversations were not productive.
Back in Britain Since August
Harry and Meghan arrived back in the U.K. on Aug. 26 after six years in California, saying they wanted Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, to grow up British and attend school in the country. The homecoming has not been quiet. Foreign paparazzi have tried to photograph the children at their new school, drawing a public rebuke from the couple.
The couple were later photographed together at the Falkland Arms pub in Great Tew, Oxfordshire, in the Cotswolds. Photographs of the two holding hands drew wide coverage, with critics questioning whether the outing had been staged. Harry, for his part, said in a BBC interview in May 2025, given after he lost a court appeal over his security in the U.K., that he would welcome a reconciliation. Five years after the Winfrey broadcast, the people closest to him insist that an apology is not the route he intends to take.