The Royal Rift Has Likely ‘Deepened’ After Prince Harry’s U.K. Visit Left King Charles ‘Bruised’—Commentators
It seems the royal rift can—and has—gotten worse. A commentator suspects tensions have only increased between King Charles III and Prince Harry since the latter’s U.K. visit to mark 10 years of the Invictus Games. The Duke of Sussex reportedly “bruised” his estranged father with his statement about them not being able to meet.
Harry’s statement about his father being too busy to see him ‘set the mood’ for U.K. visit
Apparently, Harry came out swinging when he touched down in London, England, on May 7, 2024. Shortly after his arrival—Meghan Markle stayed behind in California with their children; Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 2, later joining him on a trip to Nigeria—Harry answered the question commentators and royal watchers had been asking for weeks: Will he see his father?
In a statement, Harry’s spokesperson said no meeting between the father and son would happen due to the king’s “full” schedule. The 75-year-old returned to public duties on April 29, 2024, after 11 weeks off during cancer treatment.
“The duke, of course,” they added, “is understanding of his father’s commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.” Speaking on The Royals with Roya and Kate podcast, co-host and Sunday Times Royal editor Roya Nikkhah said Harry’s statement set the tone for his visit.
“All the narrative from the moment he touched down and we got that statement,” she said (via Mirror). “That set the mood music for the whole week, that Harry had said Pa [King Charles] is too busy to see me.”
Harry’s statement about not being able to see each other in the U.K. ‘bruised’ King Charles
“I just thought something didn’t feel quite right about this,” Nikkhah continued, saying she looked into the statement about Harry’s U.K. visit “a bit deeper and found out that actually, Harry had asked if he could stay.”
“Charles had said, ‘Yes, come and stay, son. You come and stay in a royal residence. You are near where I am, so it’s going to be much easier for me to see you given what’s going on with my diary and your diary.’”
The commentator claimed that “turned everything on its head” as Harry’s my dad’s too busy to see me “narrative” wasn’t “reality.”
“Actually, the reality was Charles said, ‘Yes please do come and stay in a royal gaff, [home] and that would make it much easier’” to see each other, she explained.
Kate Mansey, assistant editor at The Times, then claimed Harry’s statement hurt King Charles. “Someone at the palace told me that the king was bruised by that statement that Harry put out, which all plays into exactly why.”
“The clashing that still remains,” Nikkhah continued, “is that Harry let it be known that he absolutely did ask to see his father. He put in a request well in advance of coming. More than 28 days before the warning…to the Home Office for security, absolutely adamant that he did.”
Meanwhile, the king’s office claimed they never received such a request. “So still recollections may vary,” she said.
The ‘too busy’ controversy likely made the rift worse between Harry and Charles
After all the back-and-forth about whose idea it was to meet and where Harry would stay, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said whatever happened probably made things worse.
He said, “The depth of the rift with the royal family has, if anything, deepened after Harry’s recent visit.”
And it’s all because of the “utterly bizarre subsequent controversy over whether his father was too busy to meet him, which is extremely unhelpful as he needs to project a positive image.”
He said that if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “are to thrive and not just survive, they must avoid offending the royal family. Their attacks have cost both them and the royals’ popularity and made them appear extremely destructive and also hypocritical over the issue of privacy.”
