Meghan Markle and Prince Harry continue to stand by each other, yet they approach their estrangement from the royal family from distinctly different angles.

“They’re aware of everything happening in England, but they’re not being kept in the loop — clearly, trust is gone,” a source close to the couple tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.

While Harry still looks back, Meghan keeps her focus forward. “She’s very business-like about it,” the insider adds.

Through it all, Meghan remains a constant source of support, standing by Harry as he navigates legal battles and the painful breakdown of his royal ties. Still, another insider says she wishes her husband could be less weighed down by the past and more engaged in the life they’ve built together in California.

The strain between Harry and his father, King Charles, stretches back five years and remains one of the most painful aspects of the monarch’s reign. Even now, amid the King’s battle with cancer and Harry’s increasingly open remarks, silence continues to dominate their relationship.

“I don’t know how much longer my father has,” Harry said in a BBC interview on May 2, after losing his appeal to reinstate automatic police protection in the U.K.

But what struck harder was his candid admission: “He won’t speak to me.”

The two men were briefly on the same continent in late May when King Charles, 76, visited Canada for a state event, yet emotionally, they remain miles apart.

Once referred to as his father’s “darling boy,” Harry was expected to become a dependable figure within the monarchy. But that vision faded, says royal historian Dr. Ed Owens, author of After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?

Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal life and moved to Montecito in 2020 after tensions reached a boiling point. The divide deepened with their headline-making interviews, Netflix docuseries, and Harry’s memoir Spare, which included claims of a physical confrontation with Prince William.

While Harry and William remain estranged, many royal watchers believe it’s King Charles — long seen as a unifying figure — who should take the first step toward healing. But that step hasn’t come.

“There’s a desire at times to reconnect,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, “but the root issue is trust. The King and William don’t trust Harry and Meghan with anything confidential.”

Insiders also say that the King isn’t being advised toward reconciliation. William, 42, shows no sign of softening. Queen Camilla, who was criticized in Spare, reportedly “stays out of it,” according to a source. Even senior aides, like Clive Alderton, who also appeared in the memoir, aren’t expected to push for a reunion.

“There’s no one close to him saying, ‘Be a good dad and make the first move,’” says Valentine Low, author of the upcoming Power and the Palace.

Harry’s public remarks, including the BBC interview, have only complicated things further. “It wasn’t meant to be an attack,” Low says, “but it came across that way. And that makes it harder for Charles to reach out.”

With the King undergoing weekly cancer treatments, there’s an increasing urgency to repair the relationship while there’s still time.

“It’s been hard for Harry to even get proper updates about his father,” a source notes, emphasizing how wide the chasm has become.

Catherine Mayer, author of Charles: The Heart of a King, says the emotional cost of estrangement is always looming. “When a family is fractured like this, and you’re cut off, there’s always the risk of something devastating happening without warning.”

Harry’s relationship with his father has always been complex. After all, he grew up as the child of a high-profile divorce and lost his mother, Princess Diana, in a traumatic and very public tragedy when he was just 12.

At one point, Harry even consulted his uncle Charles Spencer about taking Diana’s maiden name as his own. But the legal obstacles were too great — and such a change would have had serious implications for their children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.

“There’s just too much history there,” Mayer says. “The idea that one meeting could fix everything is absurd. But even a little communication would be better than none at all.”