In the five years he's been estranged from the British Royal Family, Prince Harry has always held space for the possibility of reconciliation.
Even as he aired his family's dirty laundry during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, in a best-selling memoir, and a Netflix documentary, Harry insisted he still loves his father, King Charles III, and older brother, Prince William "to bits".
"The door is always open. The ball is in their court," he told ITV in 2023.
"There is a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it."
But at a court hearing about his security arrangements in the UK, Prince Harry said his "worst fears have been confirmed" during the presentation of secret evidence to the judge.
"People would be shocked by what's being held back," Harry told People Magazine and the UK Telegraph in remarkably frank on-the-record interviews.
While Harry wouldn't reveal what was discussed during the closed session, he indicated that he now believes his state-backed police protection was withdrawn in 2020 to try to force him and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, to return to the UK.
Harry did not say who he believes was behind this plan.
But the issue of security is a sensitive one for the prince, who is fifth in line to the throne.
While still living in the UK, Meghan and Harry faced "disgusting and very real threats" to their lives, according to the former head of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police Neil Basu.
And when Harry was just 12, his mother Princess Diana died in a car accident, just one year after her divorce to Charles was finalised.
"My mother was chased to her death ... You want to talk about history repeating itself, they're not going to stop until she dies," Harry said in 2021 of his fears for Meghan's safety.
In his interviews, Harry said he could forgive many things that have transpired since he first met and fell in love with Meghan in 2016, but he deemed these revelations in court unforgivable, and described himself as "exhausted and overwhelmed".
With Harry convinced that his father holds all the power to resolve his security concerns, the schism within the House of Windsor may be beyond repair.
Why Harry believes his grandmother broke her promise
In January 2020, Harry and Meghan shocked the world — and their family — when they announced plans to "step back" from their roles as senior working royals.
"We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth and our patronages," they wrote on Instagram.
A subsequent statement from Buckingham Palace suggested Queen Elizabeth II was sceptical about the plan.
"We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through," the palace said.
The only royal in recent memory to leave the institution was King Edward VIII, who renounced the throne for himself and his future descendants in 1936, before permanently exiling himself in France.
So Harry and Meghan's proposal that they privately fund a new life overseas, while continuing to serve the crown, ruffled some feathers.
An emergency meeting that became known as the Sandringham Summit brought the queen, then-prince Charles, William and Harry together at their Norfolk estate to hash it out.
But in his Netflix documentary, Harry said it quickly devolved into a screaming match.
"It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me," he said.
"And my father say things that just simply weren't true, and my grandmother quietly sit there, and sort of take it all in."
Harry maintains that he left the Sandringham Summit with the assurance that his taxpayer-funded security would remain in place.
After the summit, the Queen's private secretary, Sir Edward Young, wrote a letter to the UK government in which he said Harry's safety was of "paramount importance" to his grandmother.
"Given the duke's public profile by virtue of being born into the Royal Family, his military service, the duchess' own independent profile and the well-documented history of targeting of the Sussex family by extremists, it is imperative that the family continues to be provided with effective security," Lord Young wrote.
After the meeting, the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) — a government committee in charge of guarding members of the royal family and other VIPs — ruled that Harry no longer qualified for full protection.
Instead, he was required to give the Home Office 30 days notice if he intended to travel to the UK, with each visit being assessed for threat levels and whether protection is needed.
Harry can hire private bodyguards while in the UK, but unlike a government-sponsored police security detail, they aren't allowed to carry guns under British law.
Harry later sued the Home Office, saying he was "singled out for different, unjustified, and inferior treatment".
He argued that he should have been told that the queen's aide, Lord Young — a man Harry described in his memoir as "Machiavellian" — sits on the committee that stripped him of his security.
His lawyer has confirmed that "significant tensions" exist between the prince and his grandmother's aide.
He also told the court his offer to reimburse the government for the cost of protecting him while in the UK was also ignored.
The legal case has dragged on for nearly three years.
But through it all, Harry has insisted only one man can bring this matter to an end: His father, the king.
The 'sad' revelation in a secret court hearing
Last year, the UK High Court rejected Harry's case, concluding RAVEC's approach was not irrational nor procedurally unfair.
Harry, who says he will forever be "driven by exposing injustice," immediately lodged an appeal.
But whatever happened in that closed courtroom during this month's hearing has left the prince shaken.
He is now convinced that forces within the House of Windsor — whether they are his relatives or people who work for his family — withdrew his protection in a risky gambit to force him home.
"[My] worst fears have been confirmed by the whole legal disclosure in this case, and that's really sad," he told the UK Telegraph.
The three-judge panel has now retired to consider its verdict.
But while Harry has waged war on the British tabloids, the Home Office, the royal household, and online extremists, his complex relationship with his father has always been tangled up in his quest.
In his memoir Spare, Harry describes a loving, but sometimes distant father, who called him his "darling boy".
He claimed that Charles would leave him notes on his pillow in which he told him he was proud of him.
But Harry said he couldn't fully trust his father because he suspected Charles leaked damaging falsehoods about his sons to the press to improve his own public standing.
And Harry admits that the death of his mother, Diana, was a seminal event that "rocked this family to its core … from which we were still trying to recover".
By August 1997, Diana had reportedly refused to be guarded by her state-funded security team due to her deep rift with the royal family, and her death in a Paris tunnel after being chased by the paparazzi left a wound on a 12-year-old Harry.
His feelings about the safety of his family, the treatment of his mother, and his position within the royal machine are inextricably linked.
Harry's allies told the UK Telegraph that if Charles restores his security, it would be "swords down".
However, Buckingham Palace sources insist the king cannot — and will not — involve himself in the judicial process.
They also say Charles has no power over RAVEC's decision-making, even if his right hand man, Sir Clive Alderton, sits on the committee.
The impasse means that Harry and Charles are now more "distant" than ever.
Charles torn between son and crown
Charles and Harry have not spoken since February 2024, according to the sources they have both sent to speak to the press on their behalf.
"I don't think there is any rapprochement. Nothing has changed," an unnamed Harry ally told People.
The American magazine, which is a friendly outlet for Harry and Meghan, also claims that the prince's calls and letters continue to go unanswered, and he's in the dark about his father's cancer treatment.
But allies of the king, as well as some royal commentators, insist Charles is trying to avoid being dragged into Harry's legal case.
"There is legal jeopardy which is the simple fact that here you have the son of the king suing the king's ministers in the king's court and that just creates all sorts of legal problems," royal biographer Robert Hardman told Palace Confidential.
"It would only need Harry to have a conversation with his father and then afterwards let slip, "oh my dad said this or my dad said that", and as we know, he does repeat conversations quite readily.
"That could lead to all sorts of problems. It could actually bring down a court case because the king is the fount of justice. He has got to be very careful."
But as the family dispute continues to play out in public, some of Harry's most strident critics have started to openly question Charles's stance.
"Charles seems cold, a killjoy, unable to move on," said Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones this week.
"The king has been trained to be a diplomat since birth, to set an example, yet it seems he cannot extend a hand of friendship to his son?"
Like all monarchs before him, Charles is now torn between the duties of family and the crown, between his role as king and his role as father.
But Harry, still grappling with his mother's death and still utterly convinced of the virtue of his mission, has indicated that only Charles can mend this rift.
"You can't just continue to say to me that I'm delusional and paranoid when all the evidence is stacked up," Harry said.
"I was genuinely terrified about what's going to happen to me."
