A potential reunion is anything but simple for King Charles III and Prince Harry. They have years of family drama to hash out. On top of that, there’s the Duke of Sussex’s security lawsuit. The ongoing legal battle is, an insider says, what might be stopping the king from repairing their relationship. Why? Because a father-son reunion could quickly spell legal disaster.
King Charles is being pulled in different ‘directions’ because of Harry’s security lawsuit
Harry’s legal battle with the U.K. government over security, which began in 2020, has complicated his already strained relationship with King Charles. So much so that, according to an unnamed senior constitutional expert and advisor to the British royal family, it could be a wedge keeping the king from making amends.
“Here you have the infelicitous situation where the King’s son is suing the King’s ministers in the King’s courts. That is pulling the King in three directions,” the insider told royal biographer Robert Hardman in a Telegraph report.
Harry lost his security detail after leaving royal life and relocating to Montecito, California, where he and Meghan Markle live with their two children, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3. Since then, the couple has paid for private security.
“You also have the situation where the King’s son publishes accounts of private conversations. Some of which have been, shall we say, wrong,” they added in reference to Harry’s 2023 Spare memoir. The U.K.’s The Times, for instance, reported Harry “misremembered” private conversations with relatives.
Talking about Harry’s lawsuit could make the case fall apart
Hardman continued, highlighting how much is riding on conversations between Harry and the king if the two were to discuss the security lawsuit.
“So imagine the situation if the prince were to talk to his father about his court case and then later to describe that conversation. Or, worse, a conversation which was not entirely accurate,” the author said.
If that were to happen, he explained, “there would be serious legal jeopardy. Harry would only have to say, ‘My father said this,’ and a court case could collapse.”
Harry lost his battle against the U.K.’s Home Office for stripping him of taxpayer-funded security in February 2024. However, he has plans to appeal the decision. Meanwhile, the Duchess of Sussex, 43, reportedly wants Harry to move on.
The king is avoiding Prince Harry
According to The Daily Beast, things between the father and son have “been fraught” for months. Sources close to Harry claimed the king stopped taking his calls over the summer because of the court case.
Per the report, the king is “angered” by Harry’s ongoing lawsuit and has been “avoiding speaking or meeting with Harry out of a concern his son could try and lobby him to intervene in the matter, which he is refusing to do.”
The two last saw each other in February 2024 when Harry traveled to London, England, following the monarch’s cancer diagnosis. Harry met with King Charles briefly—reports at the time clocked the visit at under an hour—before returning home to California.
