Meghan Markle pushing Prince Harry to royal reconcilation

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were crowned “Humanitarians of the Year” Thursday evening — promoting family values while desperately trying to forge a path of reconciliation with their own clan.

The couple were honored in New York City at a gala for Project Healthy Minds, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to mental health services throughout the US.

Despite having barely been seen together in public this year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wore coordinating Armani suits and clasped hands on the red carpet.

Insiders told Page Six that, behind the scenes, Markle — who has never shied away from going into detail about how her husband’s relatives allegedly mistreated her — has actually been supporting Harry’s recent bid to reconcile with his family, especially his father.

“They need the [royal] family,” said a source, adding, “Meghan is aware of that.”

The couple is well aware of the cachet their royal ties afford them: Their stationery and that of their children has “HRH” emblazoned on it.

“Meghan knows that Harry won’t be returning to royal duties, but on a human, personal level, [she wants for him to be] able to get on good terms with his father,” added the source.

Harry, 41, has made it clear he’s keen to make amends with King Charles, 76, who is fighting a cancer battle. Sources tell us tentative talks are happening around his wife and children — Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4 — to travel to the UK at some point in the near future.

Security remains a sticking point, as Harry lost a court appeal against the UK government in May, after being denied taxpayer-funded protection in his homeland — a move he called “unjustified and inferior treatment,” but was a result of him having stepped down as a working royal.

And it was reported by the Telegraph this week that a “known stalker” came within feet of Harry twice last month when he was in London to attend events including the WellChild Awards. The paper revealed that the woman, who allegedly previously followed him to Nigeria, was “body-blocked” by his security team who recognized her.

But one insider made it clear that Markle is not holding Harry back from his family and that she encouraged him to see the king while he was in London.

The insider added that the couple both very much want Charles to spend time with his grandchildren, and that Harry gave his father a photo of Archie and Lilibet during their private tea together at Clarence House.

Harry is said to have been relieved to find his father doing well after not having seen him in person for 19 months — wearing a big smile afterward as he told reporters Charles was “great.” And the wayward prince has seemed lighter and happier since, sources said.

He was seen beaming at Thursday’s gala as well as Friday at a Manhattan forum for Project Healthy Minds in honor of World Mental Health Day.

“Harry is just at his happiest when he is at events like this,” said one guest who has worked with Harry for years, “This is basically just what he sees as his life’s work.”

And while insiders praised Markle — who will be in Washington, DC, Tuesday for Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit — for helping her husband find a path back to his father, she’s still stirring up trouble.

Critics, including royal watcher Richard Fitzwilliams, blasted her as “insensitive beyond belief” for posting a social media video of her feet propped up in a car driving near Paris’ Pont de l’Alma tunnel — where Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in August 1997.

She was in town for Paris Fashion Week, supporting designer Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Balenciaga debut and air-kissing with Anna Wintour.

Markle has also been busy promoting the second season of her Netflix show, “With Love, Meghan” — which failed to make the streamer’s Top 10 shows — and working on a corresponding holiday special.

Apple TV+, meanwhile, scored a royal coup this week when Harry’s brother, Prince William, appeared on Eugene Levy’s series “The Reluctant Traveler.”

The 43-year-old spoke to the “Schitt’s Creek” actor about the media frenzy that surrounded his childhood and how he hoped to protect his own children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis from it.

But he included an unexpected name drop.

‘”I hope we don’t go back to some of the practices in the past that Harry and I had to grow up in,” William said, publicly speaking his brother’s name for the first time in years.

The siblings have not seen each other nor, reportedly, spoken since the publication of Harry’s shocking tell-all memoir, “Spare,” in which he claimed that William physically attacked him during an argument over Markle — in which the future king is said to have called her “rude” and “abrasive.”

William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor,” Harry wrote.

And even if Harry does bring his young family back to the UK to visit the king, sources said peace between the brothers is still not in the cards.

But they also believe William — who was seen crying this week during an on-camera chat with a woman whose husband committed suicide days after the loss of their child — feels things more deeply than he’s sometimes given credit for.

They take care to point out it’s not just Harry who has Princess Diana’s empathetic nature.

“We see that William is more like his mother than the royal family — the previous generation was stoic,” said Hugo Vickers, royal author and friend of the family. “The only tears the Queen [Elizabeth] ever showed was when the Royal Britannia, the royal yacht, was decommissioned. She certainly didn’t express emotion when Diana or [her own mother] died.”

Vickers recalled how Diana, when still dating Charles, broke down in tears at a 1981 polo match due to gawking onlookers and press intrusion.

“William has some of her traits too, not just Harry,” noted Vickers, “He has her charm and empathy.”

William has said that 2024, which brought a cancer diagnosis for his wife, Kate Middelton, was the worst year of his life. But now, as he prepares for life on the throne, he told Levy, “I enjoy change; I don’t fear it .. If you’re not careful, history can be a real weight and an anchor around you, and you can feel suffocated by it. I think it’s important to live for the here and now.”

It’s easy to hear his quotes as being about his family strife. Likewise, you could imagine the same when Harry spoke at Friday’s forum.

“This is what we’ve discovered: maintaining good mental health isn’t just an individual challenge, it is a community responsibility. Approached this way, everybody wins.”