Royalist or republican, you have to feel some sympathy for King Charles. In the past ten days alone, not only has he been largely responsible for ensuring that the first part of Donald Trump’s unprecedented second state visit went smoothly but before that, he had an audience with his hitherto estranged son, Prince Harry.
It was a condition of the meeting that no readout of their conversation be leaked to the press. So far, this has been adhered to, but it has not stopped a ‘royal insider’ – who bears a suspicious resemblance to a member of the Sussex camp – from offering their spin on what this might mean for father and son in the future.
Harry’s betrayal of his family for cash is never going to be forgotten
The story, which duly appeared in the Mail on Sunday, suggested that the summit (which, it should be remembered, lasted less than an hour) was a ‘thawing of their relationship’. Harry had now been welcomed ‘back into the royal fold’. It was mooted that, thanks to the undeniable PR triumph of the Duke of Sussex’s charitable endeavours during his recent visit to Britain – all of which felt like a quasi-royal tour – he might return to the country of his birth considerably more often, up to five times a year.
In the fullness of time, so it was suggested, the King and Harry might even be seen together in public in an open show of unity – the first such occasion since April 2019. The Invictus Games of 2027, which will be held in Birmingham, would be the perfect opportunity for such a display.
The idea that Harry could again become affiliated with his family, in however formal or informal a capacity, seems extraordinary. He is still estranged from his elder brother, the Prince of Wales. Meanwhile, after the scathing remarks that he has made about his stepmother in his tawdry memoir Spare and elsewhere, it seems unlikely that Queen Camilla will be urging her husband to reunite with his son.
While his visit to Britain earlier in the month was a clear success by most lights, it was also a fleeting opportunity for him to be photographed, hand over to charity a small proportion of the money that he has received from Netflix for rubbishing his family, and then to disappear off once again, job done. Harry was conspicuously absent from the Duchess of Kent’s funeral, perhaps suggesting that his desire to be part of the royal family, rather than the Montecito elite, only goes so far.
Well-informed Buckingham Palace sources have rubbished any suggestion that Harry will ever be welcomed back. One told the Mail, scathingly summoning up the ghost of the great courtier Tommy Lascelles, that:
Whoever is behind [these briefings] seems to have mistaken a brief tea and a slice of cake for the Treaty of Versailles… these syrupy briefings from supposed Sussex sources are precisely why the King and royal family are so hesitant to embark on any road to rapprochement. If the intention is to encourage a rebuilding of trust and relationships, they serve the precise opposite effect.
The statement is as much a warning to Harry as it is a comment on the present situation. More has entered the public domain than was agreed upon prior to the King’s meeting with his son. The further remark that ‘the King is a forgiving man but has been absolutely clear in upholding his late mother’s decision that there cannot be “half-in, half-out” members of the working Royal family’ makes it clear that Harry’s persistent belief that ordinary protocol and rules do not apply to him is fundamentally misguided.
It remains to be seen what the Duke does next. He may look at the persistent scandals involving his uncle, the Duke of York and his hapless, hopelessly compromised ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson – who was similarly pilloried for writing conciliatory emails to Jeffrey Epstein after lambasting him in public – and believe that he has done nothing wrong compared to them. He may, technically, be correct, but his betrayal of his family for cash is never going to be forgotten, and there is a good chance that the Prince of Wales, especially, will never forgive him. So when it comes to his own situation, it might be handy to twist an old adage: you brief if you want to, but the family’s not for turning.
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