story of Harry’s attempt to return to royal fold: Friends reveal ‘surprising’ messages, overtures and secret ‘rehabilitation blueprint’ that suggests not everything’s sunny in Montecito

They had conceded, with no small regret, that they would probably never hear from their old friend again, resigned to believing that once-strong ties had been severed beyond repair. Yet from out of the blue, the phones of a select band of Prince Harry’s former confidants have recently been pinging with conciliatory messages. To their astonishment, the royal runaway had reached out to them through WhatsApp, four years after he left the UK for California.

‘It was a genuinely big surprise,’ one source told The Mail on Sunday.
Common among his friends was the belief that in Montecito, the Duke of Sussex, ill-suited to the lifestyle there, had transformed into a strangely sulky figure, given to sermonising and self-centred psychobabble, and – worse – taking pot-shots at his family.

That at least was the narrative weaved by some and shared by many and is perhaps why Harry, angered by the criticism, was selective in whom he contacted.

Curiously, many of those yet to receive an olive branch are among his oldest companions, including fellow Etonians. Of those favoured, a number were friends acquired in more recent times