King ‘saddened’ by Prince Harry’s sabotage accusation
Duke of Sussex claims details of reunion with father were leaked to the press to scupper reconciliation
The King is said to be saddened by Prince Harry’s claim that aides are “sabotaging” his reconciliation with his father.
A Buckingham Palace source said the suggestion that the institution was out to scupper the father-son relationship was “counterproductive”.
The source told The Telegraph: “It’s very sad, especially because everyone has been working hard behind the scenes to make the private relationship work.”
The Duke of Sussex was reunited with his father for the first time since February last year during a four-day trip to London earlier this month.
The pair spent around 50 minutes together over tea at Clarence House.
The Duke told guests at a charity reception that evening that his father was “great” and aides revealed that he had thoroughly enjoyed his visit and loved being back in the UK.
However, some described the reunion as something of a “test” for a Duke whose indiscretion in recent years has caused huge family turmoil.
One source was quoted as saying that if any details of the meeting emerged, or there was any commentary from Harry’s camp, it would be “back to square one”.
The following weekend, it was reported that the Duke might now take part in more public events in Britain, returning “four or five” times a year.
Efforts were said to be under way to get father and son together more frequently in the coming months, with a view to them appearing together at a public event.
But in response, royal sources made it “absolutely clear” that the Duke could not be a “half-in, half-out” member of the Royal family and could not have any official public role.
One was quoted saying: “Whoever is behind them seems to have mistaken a brief tea and a slice of cake for the Treaty of Versailles.”
Then, on Saturday, details of the Duke’s meeting with his father were published in The Sun.
The newspaper claimed that Prince Harry was “surprised by the formalities” of their reunion, which was described as “awkward” and akin to an audience with dignitaries and official visitors.
The Duke was said to have described the meeting as “very official, like an official visit”.
Details were also published of the gifts exchanged, including a framed photograph of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
The Sussexes responded by claiming that people were trying to “sabotage” the reconciliation by casting their meeting in a negative light.
A source, who wanted the details to remain private, said: “The quotes attributed to [the Duke] are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.”
Then came a prominent story published in the Mail on Sunday that blamed the “men in grey suits” for trying to scupper his reunion with the King.
Such is the level of suspicion between the two sides that each blames the other for the breakdown in trust between the King and the Duke.
Friends of Prince Harry believe palace aides leaked details about the meeting to try and sabotage his chances of returning to the UK more often by making it appear that he had shared the information with journalists. Some believe he is seen as a threat and that palace aides would rather he stayed in the US.
One told The Telegraph that rather than trying to orchestrate some kind of plot to be welcomed back into the institution, he simply wanted to see his father more often and perhaps even bring his children back to Britain.
At the palace, there is genuine bemusement, with aides insisting that all involved would love to see the Duke on good terms with his father, not least the King himself.
They believe the Duke’s team leaked the details of their meeting and as such, all involved are caught in a stalemate, with renewed fury and frustration on both sides.
Such developments now threaten to derail the fragile peace process. One well-placed palace source insisted that it was not quite back to square one for the Duke.
“It’s certainly not helpful though,” the source said.
Prince Harry blasts claims that reunion with King Charles was cold – Reports
Prince Harry is hitting back in a rare statement, denouncing claims from a U.K. tabloid that his recent reunion with King Charles III was more formal than familial.
Harry, who stepped back from his senior royal responsibilities in 2020, reunited with King Charles earlier this month, marking the first meeting of the father and son in nearly two years. British tabloid The Sun later reported that Harry had left feeling more like “an official visitor” than a family member, and that the meeting was “distinctly formal.”
In a statement shared with People and BBC, a spokesperson for Harry called the reports “categorically false,” adding that the publication’s claims were “pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.”
The spokesperson also confirmed to the outlets that The Sun’s report of Harry gifting Charles a framed photograph was true, but emphasized that the interaction should have remained private.
“While we would have preferred such details to remain private, for the sake of clarity, we can confirm that a framed photograph was handed over,” the statement said, adding, however, that contrary to the story in The Sun, “the image did not contain the duke and duchess.” Harry lives with his wife, Duchess Meghan, and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, in California. The pair are involved in various entertainment and philanthropic efforts following their official exit from royal duties in 2020.
In their own statement to the outlets, The Sun pointed out that Harry had confirmed the details of the gift exchange, adding that he “was given full right of reply yesterday in advance of publication and opted not to give a response to the Sun’s carefully sourced account of the meeting.”
Harry and Charles’ reunion follows a tumultuous few years for the royal family marked by illness and infighting.
After a bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview, a tell-all series alongside Meghan and a particularly revelatory memoir, Harry, who recently lost a legal battle with the British government over his security, said in May that he wanted to repair his family relationships despite past emotional tensions.
“Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course they will never forgive me for lots of things. But you know … I would love reconciliation with my family … There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore. And life is precious,” Harry told the BBC.
Prince Harry’s fierce statement at ‘sources intent on sabotaging reconciliation’ with father as he denies giving king photograph of Meghan during meeting
Prince Harry has hit back at claims about his recent meeting with King Charles III and accused sources of being ‘intent on sabotaging’ his attempt at reconciliation with his family, as he says he did not give his father a picture of his wife.
During a four-day visit to the UK earlier this month, the Duke of Sussex, 41, met Charles, 76, at Clarence House face-to-face for the first time in a year and a half.
The 53-minute meeting was seen as a significant but tentative step towards repairing the troubled relationship between the Prince and the rest of his family after he quit as a working royal following his marriage to Meghan Markle.
After the encounter on September 10, a source claimed that Harry was left ‘surprised’ by how ‘distinctly formal’ the pair’s meeting was and claimed he joked he felt more like an ‘official visitor’ than a relative.
But the Duke has today rubbished the claims, saying they are ‘categorically false.’
A spokesperson said: ‘Recent reporting of The Duke’s view of the tone of the meeting, is categorically false.
‘The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.
‘Presumably, those same sources have also chosen to disclose that gifts were exchanged.
It was claimed Prince Harry was ‘taken by surprise’ by how ‘formal’ his reunion meeting with his father King Charles was – the Duke has now denied this
During a four-day visit to the UK earlier this month Prince Harry met King Charles, 76, at Balmoral face-to-face for the first time in a year and a half
‘While we would have preferred such details to remain private, for the sake of clarity we can confirm that a framed photograph was handed over, however the image did not contain the Duke and Duchess.’
It had been claimed that Harry had given his father a photograph of his children Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, along with their mother the Duchess of Sussex and himself.
Charles has not seen his grandchildren since the Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, with Harry previously saying it is not safe for them to travel to the UK. The Sussexes stopped receiving taxpayer-funded security after leaving as working royals.
It was reported that the King also handed a gift to Harry, giving him a 41st birthday present.
It was said there are currently no moves for the pair to be seen in public together or for Harry to return for a ‘half-in, half-out’ hybrid royal role.
But the King still remains open for another private meeting next time Harry is in London.
During his recent visit, the Duke carried out a swathe of visits to charity events in Nottingham and London, before meeting with his father for afternoon tea.
A spokesman for Harry previously told The Sun: ‘The trip back was about focusing on his patronages and supporting his good causes while also having time to catch up with family and friends.’
The King has not seen his grandchildren, Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, since the Platinum Jubilee
Prince Harry at a Diana Award event in London on September 11 during his recent trip to the UK
Until this meeting Harry and Charles had not seen each other face-to-face since February 2024, when the Duke made a transatlantic dash to the UK following the King’s cancer diagnosis.
It was seen as a potential first step towards rapprochement between the pair, after Harry told the BBC in May: ‘I would love a reconciliation with my family.’
He added: ‘I don’t know how much longer my father has.’
Prince Harry did not see his brother William during the four-day trip amid an ongoing row between the estranged brothers, which shows no sign of healing.
Harry has previously expressed his hopes of reconciliation with his family amid his belief that they may never forgive him after his public accusations.
The Prince, who stepped down from the working monarchy in 2020 to move to California with his wife Meghan, levelled a barrage of accusations at family members in his recent Netflix documentary and autobiography Spare.
Harry previously claimed Charles was jealous of his wife Meghan Markle and the King did not hug him when he told him his mother Princess Diana had died. Harry said he believed the King was ‘never made’ for single parenthood, but ‘to be fair, he tried’.
Charles, according to Harry, pleaded with his sons during a tense meeting after Prince Philip’s funeral: ‘Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.’
Relations between William and Harry have long been strained despite their former close bond with the shared trauma of their mother’s death in a car crash when they were 15 and 12.
The fallout is said to have begun before Harry’s wedding to former Suits star Meghan, with the Duke accusing William of being snobbish to his bride.
In the interview with Oprah, Meghan described how Kate made her cry ahead of her wedding – after reports had initially said Meghan had left Kate in tears at Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress fitting.
Another account in Harry’s candid autobiography Spare caused friction between the siblings, when he accused William of physically attacking him and pushing him into a dog bowl in a row over Meghan, and teasing him about his panic attacks.
King Charles is ‘perplexed’ by Prince Harry’s claims ‘men in grey suits’ are sabotaging his reconciliation with his father
A bruising war of words over Prince Harry’s recent meeting with King Charles is making it increasingly difficult for the pair to ever reconcile, it was warned tonight.
Father and son’s 54-minute tea at Clarence House on the prince’s recent trip to UK, the first time the pair have met for 19 months, has sparked a flurry of ‘briefings’ from sources apparently close to the Sussexes.
This prompted one well-placed royal source to tell the Mail reprovingly tonight: ‘The reality is that senior aides have been working privately to improve what is an important family relationship.
‘Such public pronouncements only serve to make that endeavour more difficult.’
Buckingham Palace is understood to be increasingly ‘bemused’ – and, clearly, not a little irritated – by the latest, increasingly wild, conspiracy claims.
The Mail on Sunday reported at the weekend that Prince Harry has ‘lambasted the men in grey suits’ – the nickname his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales gave to the courtiers she so hated – of ‘trying to sabotage his reconciliation with the King’.
In an extraordinary intervention, it said the Duke of Sussex was ‘infuriated’ at what he sees as a concerted attempt by officials to ‘torpedo his efforts to strike a rapprochement with his father by giving hostile briefings to newspapers’.
‘The relationship between the Duke and His Majesty The King is a matter for the two of them and the two of them only,’ a source said.
Prince Harry with the then Prince Charles at the World Premiere of Netflix’s Our Planet at the Natural History Museum, in Kensington, in 2019
‘The men in grey suits should stay out of it.’
This has come as something of a surprise to those involved in arranging the original meeting between father and son amid huge secrecy, complex family relations and a complete media blackout.
Not a word was said publicly in advance of the event and only the briefest statement issued afterwards.
While no further meetings have been scheduled in between the two, neither have they been ruled out, the Mail understands.
However it is fair to say, given the repeated attacks Harry has made both on his closest family and the institution of the monarchy in recent years, that there is huge wariness both in palace corridors and amongst senior family members.
Royal aides were certainly watching closely to see if anything pertaining to the meeting – at which only father and son are believed to have been present – leaked out.
Just two weeks later the first briefing was apparently made, in which ‘Team Harry’ crowed it signalled a ‘thawing of their relationship’ and the ‘acceptance’ of his family ‘back into the royal fold’.
The same sources also suggested it could even be the start of a new working model for the ex-royal.
They revealed Harry now apparently plans to return to Britain ‘four or five times year’ for ‘public events’, both for his own charitable initiatives – and, potentially, in support of the Royal Family.
And they added that high level talks were underway to gradually bring King Charles and his estranged son together in a public show of unity for the first time in at least six years.
However the report also waspishly referred to recent claims of growing tensions between the King and Prince William over his approach to royal duties, suggesting that having Harry around might help to ‘lighten the load’.
Prince Harry is seen leaving Clarence House after meeting his father King Charles III on September 10
This was a step too far for many in royal circles, with an insider telling the Mail at the time: ‘Whoever is behind them seems to have mistaken a brief tea and a slice of cake for the Treaty of Versailles.’
The briefings escalated again in recent days, with sources complaining to The Sun newspaper that Harry’s meeting with his father had been ‘distinctly formal’ and claiming he had later described it as ‘very official, like an official visit’.
It also cited insiders suggesting the ‘awkward exchange’ was carried out in a similar style to that of dignitaries visiting royal residences, seen as an implicit criticism of the much-hyped meeting.
Intriguingly, the newspaper’s sources were also well-placed enough to know that Harry personally gave his father a framed photograph as a gift, and received a present for his 41st birthday in return.
However a spokesman for the prince has since denied the picture was one of himself and wife Meghan with their children, leading many to conclude it was of the King’s grandchildren, Prince Archie, six, and four-year-old Princess Lilibet, whom he has barely seen since they were born.
The whole debacle has led to concern that ‘Team Harry’ is wildly over-spinning a loving gesture by a father, who has been dealing with significant ill-health, to his son to meet, and in doing so is eroding any possibility of developing trust between those involved.
Meanwhile others have said they find Harry’s treatment particularly of the late Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, in the latter years of their lives as ‘unforgivable’.
Buckingham Palace has declined to comment, while Harry’s spokesman said at the weekend: ‘Recent reporting of the Duke’s view of the tone of the meeting is categorically false. The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.’
