King Charles III would like to meet with his son, Prince Harry, when he visits the U.K. next week, but is weighing counsel from advisers, including his wife, that it would be unwise to do so.
Queen Camilla wants Charles to skip a meeting with Harry to avoid stress as he fights cancer, one of her friends told The Daily Beast.
Some of his advisers are also urging caution and known to be exercised by the possibility of constitutional issues if Harry were to directly ask his father to intervene in his legal argument about his security provision with the British government—technically, “His Majesty’s Government.”
Although neither side would definitively rule a meeting in or out in response to queries from The Daily Beast, a tête-à-tête looks unlikely, despite a thawing in relations which saw Charles send Harry public birthday wishes on social media recently, and Harry decline to update his memoir, Spare, with new revelations for the paperback edition.
However, Charles will be in Scotland next week, The Daily Beast has confirmed, and has no intention of traveling, while Harry is expected to be based in London.
It is not impossible, of course, that Harry could travel to Scotland if invited. He is certainly capable of traveling around the U.K.; last time Harry was in the country he spent a night at his mother’s ancestral home, Althorp, and, as The Daily Beast exclusively revealed, visited her grave, which is located on an island on the sprawling country estate.
Harry’s team would not confirm to The Daily Beast when he is arriving into the U.K., where he is staying, or how long he is planning to be on British soil. The awards ceremony, which honors seriously ill children and is one of Harry’s most important causes, is scheduled for Monday evening.
But Harry has made no secret of the fact that he is keen to meet with his father. He publicly put the ball in his father’s court last time he was in the U.K. by issuing a statement saying that he was disappointed not to meet with him and hoped to do so in the future. The Daily Beast understands that remains the case.
“He wants this settled, not just because he loves both his sons, but because it has been so destabilizing for the monarchy.”
— Friend of King Charles
Meanwhile Charles, reminded of his mortality following his diagnosis with cancer for which he is undergoing grueling treatment, would like to heal the relationship with Harry both for personal reasons and to ease pressure on the monarchy itself, a friend says.
The friend said: “The king has an instinctive impulse towards Christian reconciliation, and his cancer diagnosis has only sharpened that. He wants this settled, not just because he loves both his sons, but because it has been so destabilizing for the monarchy.”
However the king is understood to feel his hands are tied by the constitutional awkwardness that might arise if Harry were to directly lobby him over his security provision.
His son and heir Prince William’s very clear views on the matter of his brother are also part of the king’s calculations about how and when any reconciliation might be effected. Although William sent birthday greetings to Harry recently, the two brothers are completely estranged and no longer speak as a result of William’s fury of what he sees as Harry’s betrayal of him and wife Kate Middleton in his memoir.
Britain’s Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, reacts as she, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Queen Camilla and King Charles attend the state funeral and burial of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, in London, Britain, Sept. 19, 2022.
Toby Melville/Reuters
Camilla is said by friends to be one of those who has not encouraged a meeting with Harry, as she does not want her husband to be subjected to unnecessary stress before his trip to Australia in mid-October, ahead of which he is gathering his strength at Birkhall, his retreat in the Scottish Highlands.
The trip has been restructured and dramatically shortened in view of the Charles’ ongoing cancer battle, and the king’s health will be under the microscope.
The friend of Camilla said: “She has been the principal voice urging Charles to slow down and take things easy. The last thing she wants him to do is to get stressed out over a meeting with Harry.”
Charles has only met face to face with Harry once this year, when his son flew over for a meeting with him at short notice immediately after his cancer diagnosis.
The Daily Beast understands that Camilla was also present at the meeting, marking the first time they had spoken face to face since he cast toxic aspersions on her in his memoir and in interviews promoting it, saying she was prepared to leave “bodies in the street” in her quest to be made queen.
Harry did not apologize to her at that encounter for his remarks, The Daily Beast has been told by a friend of Camilla’s.
