King Charles and his courtiers remain furious that Prince Harry continues to issue statements via his spokesperson and office. One can only imagine the lies and abuses Charles would be spinning if Harry stayed silent. Actually, we don’t have to imagine it – we’ve seen those narratives spun out for years now. It’s a pretty recent phenomenon for Harry to push back on his father in real time and Charles haaaates it. So it becomes a toxic cycle of abuse – Charles treats Harry like crap privately, Harry calls him out publicly, and Charles continues to heap on the abuse because Harry dared to correct the record. Currently, the whole-ass king is throwing a tantrum about Harry refusing to put himself in danger without appropriate security just to visit the UK. Charles wants everyone to know that he had plenty of reasons for denying Harry a room at Buckingham Palace. The Mail’s Becky English got an exhaustive and ridiculous palace briefing, behold:

It was, in the words of one insider, ‘the day the King’s patience snapped’. After weeks of dithering and flip-flopping, not to mention the repeated leaks and briefings by Team Sussex, His Majesty was pushed to breaking point. Enough was enough. What prompted him to slap down his younger son wasn’t the embarrassment it was causing him personally to see their family difficulties being played out in such a public arena. It was, as one source described to me yesterday, the ‘disruption and disrespect’ to his staff.

Buckingham Palace, you see, isn’t quite ready for visitors at the moment, let alone ones as high-profile as the boss’s son. It’s still largely a building site (and will be until next year) and unsuitable for guests. Nevertheless the royal household was still willing to prepare rooms for Prince Harry when he was due to arrive in the UK last night and to change existing staffing arrangements to have a team on standby to cater to his every whim. But the constant to-ing and fro-ing had left the King’s patience worn extremely thin.

Having stood the staff team down again on Saturday morning after receiving yet another rejection from his son, His Majesty was astonished to receive a request just hours later to ask ‘Pa’ if he could have the rooms after all. And the answer – which I understand was given directly to Harry – was a firm, ‘No. Sorry but you are too late.’ Certainly not at just 48 hours’ notice.

…So why, do you ask, did Harry’s team suddenly issue a dramatic statement yesterday morning announcing he had accepted his father’s offer? Those in royal circles say there are only two possible theories. First, that Harry hadn’t clearly communicated his father’s response back down to his staff (unlikely given that he was due to arrive in the UK only hours later, surely?). Or second, that it was a clear attempt to try to ‘bounce’ his father into reversing his decision. But perhaps, there is a third possibility. That the furious prince simply doesn’t care any more and wants to cause his family maximum embarrassment.

Either way, Harry’s arrival last night was once again mired in the same smorgasbord of chaos, confusion, claim and counter-claim that has characterised all of his dealings with Buckingham Palace in recent years. Hopes among courtiers that the Duke of Sussex could, for once, enjoy a low-key and ‘peaceful’ reconciliation with his father – perhaps with his two beautiful children in tow – are now as much of a pipe dream as ever.

And there are many – even those in royal circles who openly acknowledge the institution hasn’t always handled the ‘Sussex issue’ perfectly – who firmly believe it is a mess entirely of Harry’s own making.

…My understanding is that Buckingham Palace’s offer of royal lodgings was a genuine one. However, despite repeated requests for clarity, no formal response to the offer of accommodation at a royal residence to Harry and his family had been received by the ‘necessary deadline’ at the end of last week. While every effort had been made to facilitate his stay, as a courtesy to staff and others involved, the household does require a minimum level of notice to ensure he could be ‘hosted appropriately’ at a royal residence. Since this offer was first made, every indication from the duke and his senior team remained that the accommodation was deemed ‘unsuitable’ – despite it being one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country with men brandishing machine guns on every corner.

This was a concern which was repeated as late as Saturday morning, in which the prince formally declined the King’s offer once again. A ‘belated request’ was subsequently received later in the day to accept the accommodation offered for Tuesday evening, but by then the appropriate hospitality and staffing provision was no longer available. Following consultation with the King personally, the decision to turn this down was communicated to Harry ‘through the appropriate channels’.

Asked whether there could be any doubt in Harry’s mind of this decision, a source said they couldn’t comment on the details but that they ‘could confirm the duke was aware’.

[From The Daily Mail]

While I think it’s very likely that Prince Harry’s plans were being updated and changed minute-by-minute ever since he learned that RAVEC had mysteriously “paused” his risk assessment, I also wonder if Harry had another agenda for the back-and-forth on whether he would stay at BP. It feels like Harry and his security team had very real concerns that if they accepted the offer to stay at BP, then they were walking into some kind of trap. As it turns out, it was a trap, but not the one they were expecting. The trap was that Charles was always going to find some way to rescind the housing offer. The trap was that Charles was never going to ensure a smooth and secure passage anywhere. And it’s utterly bizarre that Charles and his advisors still believe it’s a good look to say “no, we offered Harry a place in Buckingham Palace only!” Clarence House exists. St. James’s Palace exists. Kensington Palace exists. And all of those London properties have rooms and suites available too. And none of this would have been necessary if Charles hadn’t evicted the Sussexes from Frogmore Cottage, which is still sitting empty since 2023.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.