King ‘offered Harry a royal residence for his visit’
The King agreed to a request from the Duke of Sussex to stay in a royal residence for last week’s trip to London, mindful that his younger son no longer has an official UK residence, friends of the monarch say.
In the event, however, Harry is thought to have chosen to stay in a hotel during his three-day visit.
The friends point out that staying in a royal residence would have made visiting his father logistically easier, given the competing pressures on Charles’s diary.
It is the latest twist in another awkward week for father and son, who have different versions of who asked — or did not ask — to see whom.
Those close to Harry, 39, who was visiting London from his home in California to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games, insist he put in a request to see his father well in advance of the visit, which was “long on the radar”.
Prince Harry was in London for a service in St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate ten years of the Invictus Games
They point out that when Harry wants to come to the UK, he must give 28 days’ warning to the King and the Home Office to request security.
Friends of the King, 75, who has cancer, continue to stress that, to the best of their understanding, Harry neither requested to see his father nor invited him to attend the service at St Paul’s last Tuesday to celebrate the Invictus anniversary.
But sources close to Harry expressed their bemusement that Charles did not see his son on a rare trip to the UK. They noted that, despite his cancer treatment, the King made time to attend a Buckingham Palace garden party on Wednesday afternoon, hold his weekly audience with Rishi Sunak that evening and undertake a military engagement in Wiltshire on Thursday.
Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, where Harry and Meghan used to live. The couple no longer have an official royal residence
“It’s all very sad,” said a friend of Charles. “While it is true that the King is understandably wary about meeting with Harry, given the publicity circus that seems to surround all such visits, he did of course agree to see his son at the most vulnerable moment of his illness [in February], and at very short notice.
“While he was hardly going to roll out the red carpet the moment this Invictus trip was announced, with doctors advising him to focus on his treatment and recovery, the idea that he refused to find space in his diary … well, let’s say recollections may vary once again.”
When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex gave their bombshell interview to Oprah Winfrey in 2021, the response from the late Queen was characteristically diplomatic: “Some recollections may vary.” It has become a common response to flare-ups around Harry and Meghan and their rift within the royal family.
A friend of Harry’s said: “I can’t imagine that request [from Harry to Charles] fell through the gaps. Even if they didn’t get a request, which I don’t believe, could His Majesty not have made a request to see his son? It was widely known he was coming.”
The missed opportunity is understood to have deeply stung Harry, according to friends who spent time with him in London last week. “It surprises me a lot. I was fully expecting them to meet. I know that’s what he wanted to happen and I don’t know when he’s next back,” one said.
After a 24-hour dash to see his father in February for a half-hour meeting after Charles revealed his cancer diagnosis — the only time Harry has seen his father since the coronation a year ago — Harry spoke of “the strength of the family unit coming together” and his hopes of more regular meetings. “Look, I love my family,” he said in a television interview with the US network ABC. “The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that. I’ve got other trips planned that will take me through the UK or back to the UK and so I’ll stop in and see my family as much as I can.”
A statement issued last Tuesday by Harry’s spokesman implying the King was too busy to see his second son did not disguise Harry’s angst at missing time with his father: “It unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full programme. The duke is of course understanding of his father’s diary commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.” Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the matter.
Despite Harry’s family woes in the UK, it was all smiles in Nigeria over the weekend, where Harry and Meghan are on a three-day visit at the invitation of the country’s chief of defence staff, their first official international tour since stepping back from royal duties in 2020.
The couple are welcomed in a ceremony at the Lightway Academy in the Nigerian capital Abuja, part of a three-day tour in the country
With engagements highlighting education, mental health, supporting injured veterans and military salutes, the Sussexes’ visit looks every inch the royal tour, minus the British press and entourage of courtiers, which is how Harry and Meghan prefer it. On Friday, delivering a speech at a mental health summit in the capital, Abuja, Meghan, 42, who recently revealed she is “43 per cent Nigerian”, told schoolchildren: “We believe in your ability to continue to tell your stories and to just be honest with each other. There is no need to suffer in silence.”
After another week of twists and turns in the royal family’s saga, the couple will continue to tell their story, the King will stick to his script and both sides are likely to be suffering, with no sign of silence in sight.