King Charles and Prince Harry, his youngest son, have had troubled relations in recent years. Photo / WireImage
The Duke of Sussex has suggested people are trying to “sabotage” his reconciliation with the King by casting their recent meeting in a negative light.
Father and son met on September 10 for the first time in 19 months. The brief private meeting, over tea at Clarence House, marked a thawing in relations and was widely considered a stepping stone on the path to rapprochement.
On Saturday, however, it was claimed that the Duke was “surprised by the formalities” of their reunion, which a source told the Sun was “awkward”.
He was said to have described the meeting as “very official, like an official visit”.
When the newspaper declined to retract the quotes, the Duke’s spokesman claimed its description of the Duke’s view of the tone of the meeting was “categorically false”.
“The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.”
The Duke was said to have given the King a framed photograph of himself with Meghan and their children during the visit, while the monarch gave his younger son an early birthday present, with their meeting falling six days before his 41st birthday.
In fact, the photograph is believed to have been of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, and not their parents.
The Duke’s spokesman said the same source had presumably chosen to disclose that gifts had been exchanged.
His statement added: “While we would have preferred such details to remain private, for the sake of clarity we can confirm that a framed photograph was handed over, however the image did not contain the Duke and Duchess.”
The Sun stood by its claims. A spokesman for the newspaper said: “Prince Harry confirms the exchange of gifts, including a family photograph.
“The office of the Duke of Sussex was given full right of reply yesterday in advance of publication and opted not to give a response to the Sun’s carefully sourced account of the meeting. We have today updated the online article to include his new statement.”
The story, and the Duke’s subsequent intervention, are significant owing to the fragility of relations between the Sussexes and Buckingham Palace.
Trust is now of the essence and some have described the recent reunion as something of a “test” for a Duke whose indiscretion in recent years has caused huge family turmoil.
One source was quoted as saying that if any details of the meeting emerged, or there was any commentary from the Duke’s camp, it would be “back to square one”.
The Duke has made plain his desire to reconcile with his father and to reset relations after a difficult few years dominated by a raft of intensely personal allegations about his family.
The hugely damaging allegations made by the Sussexes in their Oprah Winfrey interview of March 2021 have not been forgotten; similarly the revelations and indiscretions peppered throughout their three-part Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, not to mention the Duke’s memoir, Spare.
The Duke’s multiple legal battles with the media, as well as his failed legal challenge against the Home Office over his right to state-backed police protection, have only served to distance him further from the institution.
In May, the Duke told the BBC in an interview: “I would love a reconciliation with my family”.
His recent return to the UK, comprising a series of well-received charity visits in Nottingham and London followed by an unannounced visit to Ukraine, was deemed a success.
The Duke hopes to return in a similar vein two or three times a year, potentially quarterly, for engagements with his old patronages and the organisations with which he has kept in touch.
However, royal sources have insisted that Elizabeth II’s firm decree that there can be no “half-in, half-out” public role for members of the royal family.
In the current stalemate, the Duke is thought to recognise that much in his future rests on his relationship with his father.
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