That 45-minute meeting at Clarence House in February 2024 shortly after the monarch had announced he had been diagnosed with cancer was curtailed as Charles left to drive across the road to Buckingham Palace and catch a helicopter flight to Sandringham. He had asked for the flight to be delayed so he could meet Harry but his schedule did not afford him any more time apparently. It did not sound like the most relaxed of meetings, even though Harry had flown to London out of concern for his father’s health.
But relations are currently so strained that when the monarch was briefly hospitalised after suffering a reaction to his cancer treatment two weeks ago, Harry found out about it from news reports.
Charles and Harry at St George’s Chapel inside Windsor Castle in September 2022, ahead of the Committal Service for Queen Elizabeth II (Photo: David Rose/AFP)
Father and son did speak on the phone on Harry’s 40th birthday in September but they did not meet when the Duke of Sussex visited the UK for the WellChild Awards that month. It was the same story, as far as we know, in August when Harry attended the funeral of his uncle, Lord Fellowes, in Norfolk.
Such is the sensitivity over the father-son relationship that neither Buckingham Palace nor the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will discuss it, fearing they will be accused of inflaming an already tense situation.
Charles was thrilled to meet his then one-year-old granddaughter, Princess Lilibet, who will be four in June, for the only time when she and her brother, Prince Archie, came over with their parents for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022.
He branded her “dangerous” and complained he had been sacrificed on her own PR altar by aides who, he claimed, had briefed damaging stories about him to the media in return for more favourable coverage of Camilla as part of an effort to make her acceptable to the British public.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, centre, with Charles and Camilla, left, and Prince William and Kate, right, along with other family members at Windsor Castle in July 2019 (Photo: Chris Allerton/SussexRoyal via Getty Images)The ensuing row also brought in to sharp focus the bitterness on both sides stemming from Harry’s challenge to a February 2020 decision that, following their decision to quit official Royal duties and move abroad, the Sussexes would no longer receive the same level of taxpayer-funded police protection when visiting the UK.
In practice, that means when the Sussexes come over for a national event, such as Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, they are given armed police protection, but when they are here for private visits their personal security team, which costs them millions annually, has no access to the police or intelligence about any threats.
Charles is said to be angry and embarrassed that his younger son is taking legal action against His Majesty’s own government.
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But for Harry, his lack of protection is a symbol of how he has been thrown to the wolves by his family and the senior aides in the institution he has come to despise.
He points to former politicians and others who still receive full protection.
Whether it is ever resolved to Harry’s satisfaction remains to be seen but his relationship with his father may only start to be repaired when the court cases are over.
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