Prince Harry Gives Rare Update on King Charles Health Two Years After Cancer Diagnosis

Prince Harry offered a rare and quiet update on his father King Charles during a recent conversation with GQ. The interview was tied to a MasterClass Harry recorded about grief, and the subject naturally turned to the king’s ongoing health battle.

Charles, who is 77, was diagnosed with cancer in February 2024. The palace has never named the specific type, though it has been clear from the start that it is not prostate cancer. Officials have said he continues to respond well and that his care has moved into a more precautionary phase.

Harry and his wife Meghan Markle moved back to Britain with their children Archie and Lilibet in August after years in California. In the GQ sit-down, journalist Zach Baron shared that his own father had been treated for prostate cancer and that watching Harry’s class had made him think about anticipatory grief. He asked whether Harry felt something similar given his father’s illness. Harry answered yes and said that kind of feeling can actually be helpful because losing a parent is something almost everyone eventually faces.

When Baron asked if his mother’s death made his father’s diagnosis harder, Harry replied that it did, but then added that his father is getting better. He went on to talk about the difference between losing one parent and losing both. Friends of his who have lost both parents sometimes describe themselves as orphans even in their forties or fifties. He said he had never really considered that before. Harry also reflected on the last phone call he had with Princess Diana when he was twelve. He has spoken openly about regretting that he did not know it would be the final conversation and that, as a child, he simply wanted to go outside and play with his cousins instead of staying on the line.

In the same interview Harry made clear that he wants the fractured relationships with his father and his brother Prince William to heal. He said some people do not want it to work out, but he does. With everything else happening in the world, he believes reconciliation is the most important thing. A spokesperson for Harry later clarified that the remark about “some people” was not meant as a dig at his brother or any other member of the royal family.