Prince Harry arrived in London Tuesday afternoon and then dramatically announced his father King Charles had said he was not able to meet him during his sojourn in the capital, despite the fact they will be just a few miles apart.
Harry arrived in London on Tuesday afternoon for a church service celebrating his Invictus Games project on Wednesday, and shortly thereafter his office made a statement which said Harry would not be meeting the king due to the king’s “full program.”
In a statement provided to The Daily Beast, Harry’s spokesperson said: “In response to the many inquiries and continued speculation on whether or not the Duke will meet with his father while in the UK this week, it unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full programme.
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“The Duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.”
The statement clearly implied that Harry had wanted to meet the king and the king had refused him, but it was at least diplomatic in tone.
One royal source, a former courtier with good links to the palace, told The Daily Beast the decision was the right choice by the king to prevent the encounter distracting from his own “miraculous” return to work amidst his cancer battle.
Another source, a friend of Charles and Camilla, told The Daily Beast the king’s decision on whether to meet with Harry was being complicated by the fact that Harry has not apologized to Camilla for writing harshly about her in his book.
The friend that while the king has made it clear that he wants to be reconciled with his son, using the customary formulation from insiders that he “loves both his sons,” Harry’s “outrageous comments about Camilla had put his father in a very awkward position.”
In his book Harry accused Camilla of “sacrificing” him to get good PR and told one interviewer she was prepared to leave “bodies on the street” in order to be queen.
The former courtier told The Daily Beast: “Of course reconciliation between father and son is important. But the problem is that any meeting with Harry would have completely overshadowed Charles’ ongoing return to work this week, which is what his office, quite rightly, would see as the story of the week. Charles is hosting a garden party for 5,000 people on Wednesday. That’s a pretty miraculous and brave thing for a man being treated for cancer to do. Does he really want that pushed off the front pages?
“His office don’t want to think about the Duke of Sussex. I think if the country was clamoring for Charles to meet Harry, he absolutely would have met him, but Harry is still very unpopular in the U.K.
“Plenty of people still think Harry ruined the final years of his grandparents (Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip) with his attacks on her life’s work. Does Charles want to spend his political capital rehabilitating Harry, especially if Harry then uses that to enhance his commercial deals? That’s why a lot of us were skeptical that there was going to be some big heart to heart this week.”
