King Charles Didn’t Invite Prince Harry to Dinner With Him and Prince William the Day Queen Elizabeth Died for 1 Reason, According to Biography
Prince Harry didn’t reminisce about Queen Elizabeth II with his father and brother when the monarch died on Sept. 8, 2022. A biography claims the Duke of Sussex wasn’t invited to have dinner with King Charles III and Prince William in the hours after the queen’s death. The reason? There couldn’t be any “distractions” involving Harry and his memoir, Spare, which was due to hit shelves just months later.
Harry wasn’t ‘automatically’ included in Charles and William’s dinner plans the day Queen Elizabeth died for fear he’d put it in ‘Spare’
In his new book, The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, out Jan. 18, 2024, author Robert Hardman claimed the new king had dinner with his oldest son, the new Prince of Wales, hours after the queen’s death.
While Harry was also at the Balmoral estate in Scotland at the same time, he didn’t get an invite.
“The king needed to have vital but discreet discussions with his elder son,” Hardman wrote (via Mirror). “In years gone by, such a moment would automatically have included his younger son, too. But not anymore.”
So William and King Charles dined with the new Queen Camilla, then referred to as Queen Consort Camilla, at Birkhall, King Charles and Camilla’s private home on the Balmoral estate.
Harry wasn’t invited to dinner for fear he’d be “taking notes for his forthcoming book,” Spare, which hit shelves on Jan. 10, 2023. King Charles, Hardman explained, needed “a clear head and no distractions.”
King Charles, Hardman claimed elsewhere in the biography, learned of the queen’s death while driving to Balmoral. Meanwhile, Harry discovered his grandmother died via BBC News mid-flight.
William stayed the night with King Charles at Birkhall, Harry with the other senior royals at Balmoral
On the night of Queen Elizabeth’s death, Harry, William, and King Charles didn’t have dinner together, nor did they cross paths once.
William stayed the night at Birkhall with King Charles and Queen Camilla. As for Harry, he remained at the main house, Balmoral, with the rest of the senior royals, such as the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, and her daughter (Harry’s cousin), Zara Tindall.
As Harry recalled in Spare, he spent the rest of the evening, after paying his respects to the queen and having dinner, wandering the halls of Balmoral alone with his “thoughts while trying to make actual travel arrangements on my phone.”
Harry didn’t travel back to England with King Charles and William after the queen died
Similar to dinner and his journey to Balmoral, Harry didn’t get an invite to return to London, England, with William and King Charles the following day.
Instead, Harry made his way back to Frogmore Cottage, his and Meghan Markle’s former U.K. home, solo.
“The quickest way back would’ve been a lift with Pa or Willy …” he recalled in Spare. “Barring that it was British Airways, departing Balmoral at daybreak. I bought a seat and was among the first to board.”
A day later, on Sept. 10, 2022, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex greeted members of the public together outside Windsor Castle alongside William and Kate Middleton.
Then came a vigil for the monarch and, later, on Sept. 19, 2022, the state funeral. Finally, Harry and Meghan returned to California, where they couldn’t stop hugging their children, Prince Archie, 4, and Princess Lilibet, 2.
