“There’s a desire at times to reconnect,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, “but the root issue is trust. The King and William don’t trust Harry and Meghan with anything confidential.”

Insiders also say that the King isn’t being advised toward reconciliation. William, 42, shows no sign of softening. Queen Camilla, who was criticized in Spare, reportedly “stays out of it,” according to a source. Even senior aides, like Clive Alderton, who also appeared in the memoir, aren’t expected to push for a reunion.

“There’s no one close to him saying, ‘Be a good dad and make the first move,’” says Valentine Low, author of the upcoming Power and the Palace.

Harry’s public remarks, including the BBC interview, have only complicated things further. “It wasn’t meant to be an attack,” Low says, “but it came across that way. And that makes it harder for Charles to reach out.”

With the King undergoing weekly cancer treatments, there’s an increasing urgency to repair the relationship while there’s still time.

“It’s been hard for Harry to even get proper updates about his father,” a source notes, emphasizing how wide the chasm has become.

Catherine Mayer, author of Charles: The Heart of a King, says the emotional cost of estrangement is always looming. “When a family is fractured like this, and you’re cut off, there’s always the risk of something devastating happening without warning.”

Harry’s relationship with his father has always been complex. After all, he grew up as the child of a high-profile divorce and lost his mother, Princess Diana, in a traumatic and very public tragedy when he was just 12.

At one point, Harry even consulted his uncle Charles Spencer about taking Diana’s maiden name as his own. But the legal obstacles were too great — and such a change would have had serious implications for their children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.

“There’s just too much history there,” Mayer says. “The idea that one meeting could fix everything is absurd. But even a little communication would be better than none at all.”