Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge attend The Order of The Garter service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England. Photo / Windsor Park
OPINION:
In the cavernous attics of Balmoral, Sandringham and Buckingham Palace, I bet you wouldn’t find many tatty old Father’s Day cards, given that historically Windsor patriarchs have gotten on with their eldest sons about as successfully as Fergie has at Wordle.
Edward VII was too busy patronising his favourite Parisian brothel (and shagging Winston Churchill’s mum) to do much parenting for the boy who would grow into “harsh” George V. He, in turn, later “really went for” his son David, aka Edward VIII, while he called son Bertie, aka George VI, an “ugly duckling.” Prince Philip, meanwhile, reportedly thought that his boy, now King Charles, was a bit of a wimp and tried to sort that out by sending him to a Scottish boarding school His Majesty dubbed “Colditz in kilts”.
But, in recent years, it looked like Charles and his progeny Prince William had somehow, miraculously, bucked this miserable trend.
The trainspotters of the royal world, the Twitter algorithm and the late Queen (I’m guessing) all sat up and took notice of a photo shared by the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s social media accounts on Father’s Day in 2020. Taken by Kate, it showed William with his arm around his father, demonstrating a level of Windsor affection usually reserved for dogs or a round of Plum Duff.
Here were two future Kings hugging with such a shocking excess of warmth and tenderness that Queen Victoria must have been rolling over in her grave.
But now that father-son bonhomie could be under threat, with a growing chorus of warnings suggesting that Charles and William are at loggerheads as they tussle over the thorny question of what to do with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
To understand this situation, we have to go back to that Father’s Day photo.
See, of all of the strange by-products of the Sussexes’ peremptory prancing out of the royal enclosure for the wonders of West Coast living and paying their own power bills, was that, reportedly, it helped bring Charles and William together. For years, nay decades, things had been decidedly rocky between the two men, both of whom are reported to have tempers. (William, according to the Times, inherited some of his father’s “irascibility”.)
But when, in January 2020, Harry and Meghan fired off their resignation letter in an Instagram post and unleashed chaos, there was said to have been a “renaissance” between William and Charles.
A friend told the Times’ royal editor Roya Nikkhah in 2021 of the two men: “As the years passed there were strains imposed by the system – money, work, competition, Diana.”
“Part of William’s evolution is that as he has become closer to his father, he sees their similarities … As their respective destinies get closer, it weighs more heavily on them and strengthens the bond. The rift with Harry has also brought them closer.”
In the years since then, that alignment of Charles and William would seem to have only strengthened. (At this point, imagine a touching montage of princely hugs in genteel drawing rooms and the two men spending rainy Sundays facing off over a made-for-the-monarchy Monopoly set where all the properties are grace-and-favour homes – “I rolled a six Pa, I get Fort Belvedere!”)
But then came Harry’s memoir Spare, all 400-odd pages of it, a curious melange of deeply moving grief, petty point-scoring, and a long boring bit in the middle about the army. Its portrayal of the royal family and the inner workings of The Firm is withering and overall its release has more than a hint of the postmodern Cromwell about it.
And it’s at this point that the baleful background music should begin to swell because, according to a series of reports, His Majesty and his eldest son are now split over how to proceed from here.
Both the Daily Mail and Vanity Fair have reported that the 74-year-old wants his younger son inside Westminster Abbey for his big day and is considering calling in the Archbishop of Canterbury to do a spot of trans-Atlantic negotiating. (If Justin Welby can achieve this, then next stop, the Gaza Strip!)
A source close to the King has told Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl that he will invite the Sussexes “because it is the right thing to do and will hopefully pave the way for peace”.
Except William is reportedly not quite so willing to embrace peace, love and forgiveness as his Pa. (Well, Charles is mates with the Dalai Lama, after all.) If the Prince of Wales isn’t quite so ready to wave the white flag, it might have something to do with the fact that some of the worst revelations in Spare concern him.
His little brother-turned-bookselling-wunderkind makes William out to be a bullying, bad-tempered sort, willing to use his fists and who doesn’t care how emotionally attached Harry has become to his beard. (Never mind that at various points Harry inadvertently shows “Willy” to actually be quite a loving older brother, at one point grabbing his shirt during an argument and saying “Listen to me, Harold, listen! I love you Harold! I want you to be happy.”)
Things between William and Harry sound nothing short of woeful right now. In Vanity Fair, sources close to the Prince of Wales “say there’s no trust left between him and Harry” while another William friend has told the Times that “inside he’s burning” and that “he’s not just going to roll over”.
Complicating the situation further is that William is said to be worried that the Sussexes might try to stage some sort of “stunt”.
The Mail has reported that “William fears that unless Harry’s visit is tightly scripted, he could steal the limelight by, for example, going on a walkabout in a deprived London borough with Meghan”.
Which leaves us here: Charles reportedly wanting the Sussexes back where he can see them for his coronation and William wary of letting them anywhere near the SWI postcode let alone Westminster Abbey.
What matters here is not just what resolution they might all reach about the coronation but the fact that any sort of growing wedge between Charles and William would be disastrous.
The very last thing the royal family needs right now, aside from it being discovered that Princess Margaret once romanced Oswald Mosley or that Prince Andrew is in a WhatsApp group with Kim Jong-un, Bashar al Assad and “Cheryl” (formerly Cole), is another destabilising and distracting family feud.
In the past few years, post-Megxit, the royal family has gotten tremendously good at putting on shows of public unity with one another, from the large Windsor horde who turn up for Kate’s annual Christmas concert at the Abbey to their re-tweeting and support of one another’s charity work.
With the working members of the royal family’s approval ratings in flux, they need to get some wins on the board and for the people to be focused on their good works and not which HRHs are busy sniping about one another. (For example, on Thursday it was announced that Charles has opened the doors of two of his Scottish properties, the Castle of Mey and Dumfries House, and his personally-owned country estate Highgrove as “warm spaces” where local people can go if they are struggling during the cost-of-living crisis.)
Beyond the practicalities, if we were to see Charles and William properly fall out, it would only further diminish what standing the monarchy has right now. The King is meant to be a unifying national figure, not the Kris Jenner of the nobility.
For now, the centre would appear to be holding inside the royal family and two men “are trying to convey an image of harmony”, Valentine Low, author of the superlative Courtiers, recently told royal reporter Patricia Treble. “For the moment, all is peace between the King and his heir – not least, perhaps, because they face a common problem,” namely Harry.
However, as Low warns, “it won’t last forever”.
Cue the ominous background music …
Telegraph: Is a transactional relationship ever OK? It's complicated, says Rachel Johnson.