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Rebuilding a relationship with an adult child takes work

Published in Blog by Sarah Ingram on September 11th 2025

Families are complicated and our Royal Family is no exception. TR Psychotherapist Sarah Ingram offers a view on the meeting between King Charles and Prince Harry this week
 
When Charles and Harry met briefly yesterday for the first time in over a year, it offered more than a headline about the Royals. It was potentially a moment many parents can relate to: trying to reconnect with an adult child after conflict and distance.

Parenting doesn't end when children grow up, and it can become more complicated with adult children who have partners, lives, jobs and different values. How you think about things and remember things may be very different to how your adult child remembers them, which can cause difficulty in communicating and understanding each other.

Harry and Charles must have a complicated relationship, navigating public and private lives, step-parents, in-laws, differences. There has been a lot of hurt between Harry and Charles, often in public, on TV in front of the world, and maybe the meeting yesterday was a first step towards rebuilding their relationship.

I imagine it took some strength from both Charles and Harry to meet. Rebuilding any relationship takes work, effort, humility, and time. In all families, disagreements and arguments can occur in one generation that have effects for years and generations to come, so rebuilding and talking are important for everyone. 

For Charles and Harry, this was one step. For any parents and adult children struggling to find each other again, it's a reminder: repair is possible, and it might start with a 'nice cup of tea'. 

Find more advice and opinion from TR Therapists here:

https://tavistockrelationships.org/blogs-and-resources

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