For months, it’s been widely known/assumed that Prince Harry would travel to the UK around this time. We only got the confirmation from WellChild (and Harry himself) last week, but for the past three years, Harry has always made a point of being in or around London at this time of the year. So… why is there all of this late-breaking hand-wringing about a potential “make or break” meeting between Harry and King Charles? My evolving opinion is that Harry holds more cards than people are willing to acknowledge. Harry wants nothing from Charles other than a father-son relationship. What Charles wants from Harry is… not that. If Charles rejects another potential meeting with Harry, Harry will publicize it (again) and make Charles look like an a–hole (again) and Harry still won’t give Charles what he really wants (control over any part of Harry’s life or schedule). So, with all of that in mind, here’s more hand-wringing from Us Weekly’s cover story:
Charles & Harry’s relationship still isn’t great: A source tells Us progress has been slow, and that they haven’t spoken outside of a “brief phone call” for the king’s 76th birthday late last year.
Charles is dithering about meeting Harry: “Charles does want to meet Harry,” says a royal insider. “He doesn’t want this falling-out to overshadow his legacy. But Harry has caused chaos and hurt, so it’s complicated.” Adds royal historian Marlene Koenig: “If there is a meeting, it will be private and more likely to be on the king’s terms rather than Harry’s.”
The July meeting between Charles & Harry’s reps: The royal insider says both sides likely agreed to leak information about the sit-down in order to “allow the public to warm up to the idea” of Charles and Harry reconciling. “It [would take] time for the public to get used to it,” the insider explains, adding, “but ultimately, the public wants them to make amends.”
If a meeting happens, it will be brief: “A meeting is feasible, and both sides are open to it,” says the royal insider. “This marks the first tentative steps of a reconciliation.” The source says the likelihood of a get-together is “high” but notes that it’s more inclined to be cordial and brief versus an “in-depth” conversation about mending fences.
Charles doesn’t want a lot of drama: Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of King Charles III, believes there are one too many obstacles and says the chances of a meeting between Charles and Harry are “slim,” adding that Charles will be “consumed” by Trump’s visit and is focused on his health. “The king is still undergoing weekly chemotherapy treatments, and drama would inevitably go along with some sort of summit with Harry,” Andersen tells Us. “Having Harry around is the sort of draining distraction he just doesn’t need at the moment.”
What is this??? The source tells Us a later meeting could take place in November should Harry attend the Christmas Cotswold Fair, which has yet to be confirmed. The event is held two days after the annual Festival of Remembrance.
Trust issues. “The wounds inflicted on Charles and William in Spare — including accusations of racism, bullying and backbiting — have yet to heal,” says Andersen. In order to move forward, both sides would need to make changes. “Charles wants Harry first and foremost to stop talking about the royal family,” says Andersen. Harry, meanwhile, “still wants his family to receive royal protection when they’re in the U.K.” (Harry and Meghan also share daughter Lili, 4.) “That’s something Charles could make happen with a snap of his fingers,” Andersen notes.
Make-or-break: “This meetup is make-or-break,” says the royal insider. “If it goes well, it could lead to other family members being open to better relationships. If things get leaked negatively, then it’s done, and there’s no chance [for peace].” (Where does William stand on all this? The source says he’s “neutral but wary” of a potential meet-up.)
There’s more about how Harry feels a sense of urgency because he doesn’t know how much longer his father has. Which I think is true, and possibly the only thing fueling the “urgency” on Harry’s side. But I would ask Harry to consider why his father doesn’t share that sense of urgency. I’m not trying to tell Harry what he should or shouldn’t do with regards to Charles, but sometimes you just have to match someone’s energy and give them exactly what they give you. If Charles is going to dither and play games (as he’s done for years), Harry could and should just shrug and say, okay, if that’s how you feel, so be it. It’s clear that Charles doesn’t give a f–k about having better relationships with either son. Sometimes you just have to allow a terrible old man to wallow in his own self-sustaining misery, you know?
Also: the part about “maybe Harry will come back to the UK in November” is WILD. Why in the world would Harry go to the Christmas Cotswold Fair? And the “Charles could give the Sussexes security with a snap of his fingers” thing is infuriating. THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT!! That was what Harry’s years of legal actions were about!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, cover courtesy of Us Weekly.
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- King Charles II and Camilla Queen Consort with Prince Harry and Meghan Duchess of Sussex The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Gun Carriage Procession, Wellington Roundabout, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724207135, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock/Avalon/Avalon
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- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex arriving at the Invictus Games 10th Anniversary Service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, England. UK. Wednesday 8th May 2024 -,Image: 871355456, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: Invictus Games 10th Anniversary, Credit line: JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- 09-03-2020 Commonwealth Day Celebrations Westminster Abbey 2020
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- 09-03-2020 Commonwealth Day Celebrations Westminster Abbey 2020
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- 09-03-2020 Commonwealth Day Celebrations Westminster Abbey 2020
Charles hurt harry and Meghan and their children
Yet he is playing poor Charles how he suffers. He has a lazy heir. That he cannot control. Charles reputation was damaged before behaved so miserably to harry and Meghan
It’s mind-boggling that these articles quote ‘royal insiders’ and royalist commentators going on about trust issues when the very obvious palace back channel briefings to client journalists and authors continue ad nauseum. Hurty, but true, words in Spare were the effect, not the cause, of rifts. And can in no way be compared to the appalling way Harry and Meghan have been treated before and since publication in early 2023.
Translation: Chuckles, king of horrible fathers, has already told Harry he’s refusing to meet with him when Harry goes over for the WellChild Awards. So now they’re kicking the can down the road to……a Christmas fair? They really think Harry should return once again to walk around with his father at a Christmas market?!
These people are delusional. And Marlene Koenig is no more a royal historian than I am. She’s just a rando who started a website way back when and consistently got royalty-related things wrong.
I’m glad you mentioned this Marlene person. Whenever I see her and others like her being quoted in articles as royal “historians” and “experts” and “commentators” I always think back to the Harry & Meghan Netflix documentary, where Mandana Dayani says “What is a royal expert? I don’t understand” and then seconds later, after Harry replies, she says in absolute astonishment “You mean anyone can call themselves a royal expert?!!!” 😀
Over the last few years, we have seen these people popping up online, calling themselves royal experts and royal historians and then “news” organisations with links to the royals and narratives to push begin to co-opt their views and call them royal experts, based on nothing but the stories they create in their own minds, just like the royal rota.
I suppose they can’t find anyone else. There aren’t too many burnished credentials to those who are royal experts. We are all royal experts 😂
How can you doubt Marlene Koenig’s competence??? Don’t you know that Koenig or König is the German word for King? This lady is competent by name (only)!!! 😅
Koenig is an American retired librarian (nearly 70, I think) who for decades has been enamoured, indeed obsessed, with European royal families and their histories. She lives alone with her cats, having been widowed many years ago. No kids. Openly religious – Christian – politics progressive, apparently, despite worship of royalty and no longer lives in NYC. Incredibly pedantic and can become offensive when challenged. Strange woman.
God, this man is tedious. It’s like his whole life is a monumental testament to passive aggression. When he initially spurned Diana — say ‘84 to ‘86, long enough for hope to die, or, until she met James Hewitt — he must have expected her to do what Kate does: turn up for tiara events, retire bashfully to the countryside, and raise their kids whilst cosplaying Penelope. I mean. Really. That’s the blend of arrogance, entitlement, and utter complacency in this man. The kink in his rope was, he didn’t expect her to buckle down to her job. She made Princess of Wales a proper job description, got stuck in, and from about ‘88, she really just marched up and down his territory, marking it as her own. And in the nineties, she started flying solo around the world, planting flags. I mean. He was a goner. By 1993, after they separated officially, it was plain there was no stopping her. Granted she took much of 1994 off, but on the principle of reculer pour mieux sauter: she had proven she could work as a single woman under the BRF umbrella, then, when she came back in 1995, she was working for herself — BRF be damned. Then came the Bashir interview. She played a blinder. Granted she only lived for another 22 months, but on balance? She did what she came to do. Sometimes people don’t need a lifetime to make their mark indelible. True, she would have likely preferred to grow old, but by all accounts, when she died, she had been planning to leave the UK, set up shop abroad, and lower her profile. Maybe even marry again and have kids. She was only 36, incredibly. So. Charles has been given a lifetime to prove why he is on this earth, and ….we’re still waiting. It’s like waiting for Godot.
Camilla had ambitions and was not just mistress. And I think she wanted what Diana had titles and all. Charles allowed her to play hostess at highgrove when he was still married to Diana. Charles thought entitled to this lifestyle. Charles also had the he won’t be overshadowed and he displayed resentment when Diana was 19 and still his fiancee. Diana wanted a real marriage and would not want to be shunted off to the country while her husband was with camilla.
Amazing lady.
Koenig only like s to hear positive things about royals. Which probably is why us uses her.
Honestly it all sounds like more of the same. Charles wants Harry to publicly apologize for what he has said so that it improves their horrible standing, let them make all the decisions about how him and his autonomous wife earn money, piggyback off of their success and charm for the Royal family’s benefit, and allow themselves to be used as shields for criticism, and their children as well. So basically they want Harry to jump into a time machine with his family and pretend it’s 2015. Silly.
I wish they would stop saying they want Harry to stop talking about the royal family like he’s out there divulging secrets every week. He doesn’t speak about them at all, and what he’s said in the past has directly related to him and his family. They’re not going to be able to put the genie back in the bottle about how crappy they treat blood relations and people who marry in. If that’s what they’re hoping by ” reconciliation” , they aren’t going to get what they want.
Yeah Harry’s not going to the UK in November and definitely not for the Cotswold fair. That tidbit is bonkers. I’d be surprised if Harry and Charles meet next week and I don’t think Harry will say anything about it. To me, it doesn’t seem like Charles is interested in having a relationship with Harry and I don’t think he ever was. I hope Harry realizes that one day.
Like….it was so random. It wasnt about Harry maybe being there for Remembrance Sunday, but some random fair in the Cotswolds that takes place a few days later. why on earth would he go to that?!?!
Lol. It’s like something out of PG Wodehouse – he’ll be judging the fat pigs contest at Market Snodsbury.
Along with Gussie Fink-Nottle and Stilton Cheesewright.
Wodehouse! 🎯 😂
Well surely the Cotswold Christmas Fair is worth an 11 hour trans Atlantic flight. I mean who would miss the chance? And to get to see your miserable, conniving sperm donor too?
I don’t know why they are still twittering about Spare. I thought most of that had been “leaked” to the press as it happened.
“He doesn’t want this falling-out to overshadow his legacy” and “…time for the public to get used to it”.
And that is Harry’s issue with his father in a nutshell. Harry understands that your children and grandchildren, as in the people themselves and the values and knowledge you instill in them, ARE YOUR LEGACY. And while I suspect that the alleged insider is using “the public” as a straw man here (literally NO ONE outside the BRF/their proxies and a few brainwashed Fail readers would object to a father and son, or brothers for that matter, reconciling), public opinion should have nothing to do with your private relationship with your son. Charles only cares about appearances and will never approach any reconciliation attempt in good faith.
this is to reply to @Miranda, it’s amazing to me how deeply that mentality sinks roots in people who are not even in the public eye — that particular brand of point-scoring, like, come back & play happy families, otherwise, you’re the bad guy — as if everyone involved were performing for an audience of invisible onlookers tutting and shaking their heads. Like, literally, there is no one watching. And even if there were, there is no moral high ground to be recovered by refusing to be accountable. Holding a grudge is not the same thing as holding someone accountable. I think the reason Harry & Meghan’s story hits such a nerve, globally, is that so *many* of us have sh*tty families who do this role playing, of saying, come home, join in, when you’d just rather do…. Anything else. Literally, anything.
They really want to turn Harry into Andrew and treat him like he’s a disgrace.
This butler harrold rewrites history for the wails. He goes to media many times double standard. Charles never publicly apologized for bashing his parents
It’s always about Chuckles legacy as a king it’s never about the shit father he is and always will be. If he cared so much about his legacy he would have been a better father but that’s not Chuckles. Chuckles only care about himself and Horsilla period. Chuckles needs to sit down and review all the shit things he has done e to Harry and Megan but we know that will never happen. Chuckles only knows how to play the victim.
For Chuck’s legacy, read, Chuck’s ego. For William’s reign, read, William’s ego. God they’re so petty & small. How did the U.K. end up with these engorged man babies?!?!?!?!
Because they didn’t need to do anything to earn their high positions beyond choosing the right mother.
There are no leaks from Montecito but daily the obsession by Chuck and Willy through their minions show they have truly lost the plot.
Okay this Cotswolds County Fair thing sounds like a trap. Lure Harry out to the Cotswolds? Lol, no don’t do it, Harry!
I’m. Pretty sure no one, especially not US weekly, know what Harry thinks or wants. He’s been to the UK and not seen dogshit. He knows what Charles is. I doubt he expects anything new.
I don’t think Charles cares about any of this, one way or the other. When Charles wants something, he gets it – whether it’s Camilla or a properly working ink pen – so, there’s a basic reason why he’s not exerting any effort here. I don’t think he even cares about his legacy all that much – at this age and stage there’s nothing he can do to change it. Now, it’s all about his personal comfort. He’s resolved the issue with his sons by ignoring them and cutting them off and now he can spend the rest of his days puttering around the countryside with Camilla.
The people who do care are the press and the courtiers. They’re the ones who care about the system and profit from fostering these continuous stories. They’re the ones who will lose money and power if the system goes under. Charles will be dead, William will have his millions and Harry will be in California – for them, there’s nothing to lose.
I think it’s hilarious how now they’re all “both sides agreed to leak their reps meeting” when earlier, they were swearing up and down that the Sussexes leaked.
That sentence stuck out for me, too. I resent them even implying for one second that H leaked anything. He’s proven over and over what he has to say, he says with his whole chest. H is not a leaker, to say they both agreed to leak is a lie.
I keep coming back to what we have heard about Charles over the last few years – that pretty much the last person to talk to him is the one who “wins.” That doesn’t speak of someone with a strong spine. I think Charles may like to see harry in a vague noncommittal way, but I think there are people around him who are adamantly opposed to it, especially those who are angling for prominent positions in William’s reign. And those people win.
I think if Charles was absolutely opposed to it, we wouldn’t have stories like this a few times a year that dangle the prospect of a meeting, and there wouldn’t have been that very visible meeting over the summer between Harry’s reps and Charles’ reps.
So we know William refuses to see Harry, and doesn’t want his father to see him; we know William was cut out of that visible summer meeting, and we know that William and Charles barely speak.
No clue what is going on but these family dynamics are effed up.
(also Harry was pretty nice to Charles in Spare. William and the press got the brunt of his anger, but he was pretty gentle to Charles.)
‘The royal insider says both sides likely agreed to leak information about the sit-down in order to “allow the public to warm up to the idea” of Charles and Harry reconciling.’
— I’m pretty sure only Charles cares what the public thinks, in this scenario.
“[Protection is] something Charles could make happen with a snap of his fingers.”
— SO, THEY’RE ADMITTING IT, NOW??
I still wonder if that July meeting wasn’t about something to do with the IG. On the one hand, the palaces don’t seem to be able to keep their mouths shut about anything, so you’d think something would leak. On the other, Charles, who’s CIC as well as patron of the RBL, has been a complete sh*t about past IG, never wishing the UK teams good luck, ignoring the 10th anniversary celebration, in London. With the next iteration of the games themselves also actually in the UK, I really can’t see Charles getting away with ignoring that they’re taking place (again, he’s the royal patron of the RBL, which selects and trains the UK team). The usual one year to go event takes place next July, one year from the date of this summer’s get together. I could see Charles and Harry’s people negotiating around what role would make Charles look like less of a jackass, set the stage for how he and Harry will interact after not meeting for so long, etc. For something like that, BP might actually be able to keep things close to the vest – especially if they can give the media other fodder with the meeting participants seen talking on the patio of a public space, and vague hints about “reconciliation talks”
Even though Harry has questioned how much time his father has left, and previously expressed an interest is seeing him, he was so devastated by what he found out went on BTS regarding how decisions were made regarding his/his family’s security, I wouldn’t be surprised if at this point he’s not willing to put in much of any effort to see Charles, if Charles himself is indifferent. But to pave the way for a smoothly run IG on behalf of the service members and veterans who’ll participate, that I can see Harry caring about.
Chuckles is a simpering wimp. He has no backbone or moral compass.
Either the British populace is quite comfortable with the marginalization of Prince Archie and Princess Lili and Charles enjoys their support…or Chuckles really doesn’t feel that icing out his mixed-race grandchildren looks bad or reflects horribly on his legacy. Either way, the results remain the same: Charles utterly ignores his son and grandchildren. Being biracial, half Black makes Meghan a non-entity to Charles.
Charles either knows he is in the wrong, or his culture, church, subjects, and advisors tell him that the gross racist mistreatment of his DIL Meghan is perfectly acceptable and culturally appropriate.
The wounds inflicted on Charles and William in Spare — including accusations of racism, bullying and backbiting — have yet to heal,”
I can’t with this narrative, The Sussex’ deserve acknowledgement and apologies for the treatment they received then and still to this day. 10ish years of attacks and abandonment leaving them in danger. Neither Harry or Meghan owe anyone on that island an ounce of apologies for their “wounds” caused by the TRUTH!