A week some had hoped would be an occasion for reconciliation ended up blowing Britain’s royal feud wide open, again, in dramatic and very public style.
King Charles’ refusal to meet with Prince Harry, send a minor royal to attend his Invictus event at St Paul’s Cathedral in London this week, or even issue a social media post in support of it is “a clear message that Harry is not welcome to conduct official, quasi-royal events in the U.K. that distract from the monarchy’s message and agenda,” a royal source has told The Daily Beast.
Harry cut an isolated figure this week as he arrived alone at a special church service giving thanks for the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style event for wounded servicemen he established when still a working royal. No member of the royal family attended the service and, to rub salt in the wound, all working royals except Prince William and Kate Middleton gathered to support the king at a garden party at Buckingham Palace taking place at the same time.
Harry was instead supported by his uncle Charles (Earl) Spencer, his aunt Lady Jane Fellowes, his lawyer David Sherborne—plus a large and very enthusiastic crowd of well-wishers gathered outside who cheered his arrival.
The solo service was of a piece with a trip to London made notable by a series of high-profile snubs, Harry’s public claim that his father was too busy to see him, and then the palace revealing William was to be made head of Harry’s old regiment in a rare joint engagement with the king next week.
The royal source, a former staffer who worked for several royals including Charles, William, and Harry during their time in royal service, said: “Even if Charles genuinely was too busy to meet Harry and too short-staffed to send anyone to St Pauls,’ Charles’ aides could of course quite easily have issued a statement or posted a little message of congratulation for Invictus on his social media channels.
“The fact that they didn’t shows they don’t want to do anything to encourage Harry to spend more time in the U.K. Charles is never going to endorse a hostile, rival royal operation on his doorstep. Instead, Charles sent a clear message that he is not welcome to conduct official, quasi-royal events in the U.K. that distract from the monarchy’s message and agenda.”
“Trust” was a word heard frequently in conversations with sources this week after Harry issued a “childish” statement Tuesday in which Harry blamed his father for not agreeing to meet him, saying Charles had “other priorities.”
“Harry claims to love his family. He has a funny way of showing it.”
— Friend of King Charles and Queen Camilla
One friend of the king and Queen Camilla said, speaking of the statement: “No-one trusted him before, and they certainly don’t now. It’s rude, undignified and childish to make these attacks on his family when he knows they can’t answer back. It’s also inconsiderate, to say the least, to make the life of an elderly man who has cancer more difficult. Charles is trying his hardest to do his job in very difficult circumstances. Harry claims to love his family. He has a funny way of showing it. It’s reminiscent of how he spent the last months of Queen Elizabeth’s life saying how much he loved her while attacking the monarchy to which she had devoted her life. Nothing has changed. We are back to square one.”
A friend of Prince William and Kate Middleton said: “I think people understand now why the brothers are as far apart as ever. It’s very sad, but William is right not to trust him.”
Another friend of the king and queen told The Daily Beast this week that Charles was unable to forgive Harry for the “cruel” comments he made about his wife. This suggestion has been supported by sources speaking to other reporters including the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden, who reported Thursday that Charles will be reluctant to meet with Harry until he apologizes for the “hurt” he has caused Camilla.
In his memoir Spare, Harry said Camilla “sacrificed me on her personal PR altar,” and described her as “dangerous.” In remarks to Anderson Cooper on the show 60 Minutes to promote the book, which is estimated to have made the prince some $27 million, Harry said: “With a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being queen consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street.”
He also described his stepmother as a “villain” and the “third person in the marriage,” echoing his mother’s controversial interview with Martin Bashir in 1995, when Diana said there were “three of us in the marriage.”
Prince Harry speaks to well wishers as he leaves after attending the Invictus Games Foundation 10th Anniversary Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, in London, Britain, May 8, 2024.
Toby Melville/Reuters
Buckingham Palace did not respond to a request for comment, but friends of William, Charles, and Queen Camilla told The Daily Beast that “nothing has changed” and the family are as “far apart from Harry as ever”—despite his flying visit to the country to visit the king in February after Charles was diagnosed with cancer.
On that occasion, Harry was granted a 30-minute audience with the monarch. The meeting was heralded in some quarters as a breakthrough, but it might actually have made things worse because Harry subsequently answered questions in a television interview to promote the Invictus Games about the meeting.
Harry talked at some length, while being interviewed by GMA presenter Will Reeve, son of the Superman actor Christopher Reeve, about how grateful he was to see his father and then, to the intense irritation of Charles’ camp, started speculating that his father’s illness could draw the fractured royal family back together, saying: “I think any illness, any sickness brings families together.”
At the time, an angry friend of the king told The Daily Beast they found the idea of Harry publicizing a private meeting with Charles at a vulnerable moment “sickening.” One said: “What really would have helped the family come together would have been if Harry had said he wouldn’t be taking questions about his father.”
A report in the Telegraph Thursday, also said that Harry’s decision to discuss the meeting just days after it took place had damaged trust with his family. It suggested the palace wanted to be sure there was not a repeat of the GMA situation if Harry is interviewed when he is in Nigeria in the coming days.
