Prince Harry news: Harry has hopes of a royal reconciliation. He need only look at King Edward VIII to see how that will work out

Prince Harry has claimed, not for the first time, that he would “love” to reconcile with the royal family but a quick glance at his own family history proves how unlikely that really is.

About 80 years before Harry and wife Meghan Markle quit the monarchy, another senior royal stepped down from his duties to pursue a private life with the woman he loved.

His decision rocked the monarchy and when he publicly voiced his desire to return in some capacity a few years later, he was met with silence.

READ MORE: Meghan posts rare photo of Harry with their kids after raw interview

Much like the silence Harry claims he’s currently getting from his own royal relatives.

In an explosive new TV interview with the BBC, the Duke of Sussex revealed his father, King Charles, no longer speaks to him as a result of “so many disagreements”.

“Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course, they will never forgive me for lots of things,” Harry said.

“But, you know… I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore.”

As usual, the royal family has responded to his public allegations with silence.

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But Harry’s not the first senior royal who stepped down from his duties only to turn around and campaign for a return to the royal fold.

In December 1936, King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

The pair had met in 1931, when he was still Prince of Wales and she was still married to another man, and their romance had been a thorn in the monarchy’s side ever since.

Though Simpson divorced her husband the same year Edward became king, the Archbishop of Canterbury and British government refused to allow the pair to marry.

So Edward quit.

READ MORE: Why Harry’s recent BBC interview has ‘backfired spectacularly’

”I now quit altogether public affairs and I lay down my burden,” he said in his official abdication speech, which was broadcast across the UK in 1936.

“It may be some time before I return to my native land, but I shall always follow the fortunes of the British race and empire with profound interest, and if at any time in the future I can be found of service to his majesty in a private station, I shall not fail.”

Even as he gave up his crown and all royal duties, Edward insisted he wanted to maintain a positive relationship with his royal relatives; much like Harry did when he stepped down from his role as a senior working royal more than 80 years later.

“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen,” Harry and Meghan said in their exit statement in 2020.

WATCH: Harry says it’s ‘impossible’ to take his family back to the UK five years after exit

Both Edward and Harry were stripped of their His Royal Highness (HRH) titles and demoted to the Duke of Windsor and Duke of Sussex respectively, as were their wives.

Both moved abroad – Edward to France, Harry to the US – and avoided returning to the UK in the wake of their exits.

Before long, Edward became restless.

In 1945, almost a decade after his abdication, he returned to England to mark the end of World War II and told British journalists he would happily take a job back home in Britain.

He couldn’t take a role in the private sector (it was a conflict of interest for a royal), so his best hope would have been to reconcile with the royals and take on some small duties with the monarchy.

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That never happened.

Instead, Edward spent the rest of his days writing books, gardening and living the private life he’d given up a throne for.

The former monarch died in Paris in 1972, more than 35 years after his abdication, and was buried in the private burial ground beside Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor.

It was the closest he ever came to returning to the royal family fold.

Edward’s fate doesn’t set a very positive precedent for Harry, who now appears to be campaigning for a public royal reconciliation of his own.

Five years on from his royal exit with wife Meghan, the Duke of Sussex has said he wants to make up with his senior royal relatives – chiefly the King and Prince William – but royal expert Ian Pelham Turner can’t see it happening.

“The short answer [is] will William forgive Harry and Meghan and welcome them back? A big fat royal no,” Turner told Fox News Digital

“King Charles will have to overrule his petulant son once again if the Sussexes wish to make up and return.”

Speaking on Today, royal commentator Victoria Arbiter said if Harry’s latest BBC interview was intended to get the monarchy back on side, it “actually backfired spectacularly”.

“Any time they [the royals] have spoken to Harry, that conversation has ended up on a US news program with a friendly journalist,” she explained.

“I just don’t think they can trust him. And until they can trust him, there is no path forward.”

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