Prince Harry’s long-awaited meeting with King Charles in London next week suggests frosty relations between father and son could be improving as the monarch undergoes cancer treatment, according to royal experts.
Reports suggest the Duke of Sussex will join his father in the capital on Wednesday evening after attending an Invictus Games event at St Paul’s Cathedral which will end at the same time as a garden party at the Palace. of Buckingham.
This means there is a window of opportunity for the Duke, 39, to visit ‘Pa’ for the second time in recent weeks after news of the King’s cancer diagnosis broke in early February, and sources suggest that you are willing to meet whenever possible. .
Royal commentators told MailOnline that Harry’s hopes of seeing his father, along with other moves by the Sussexes in recent weeks to bolster their PR strategy, point to the prince’s desire to rebuild bridges with his estranged family.
Richard Fitzwilliams, an expert on the royal family, said he hoped Harry would visit his father during his recovery from cancer at every possible opportunity, and suggested their meetings could pave the way for a reconciliation with his brother William.
Prince Harry will meet his father for the second time in weeks, three months after the King revealed he was being treated for cancer (pictured together in 2019).
Meghan has not visited the UK since 2022 (pictured during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June that year)
King Charles resumed his public-facing royal duties this week as he continues to receive treatment for cancer (pictured with Queen Camilla on a visit to the UCLH Macmillan Cancer Center in London)
Charles and Zara Tindall embrace as they greet each other at the Endurance event on day three of the Royal Windsor Horse Show on Friday.
And while there might even be room for Meghan and grandchildren Lilibet and Archie to join him on a future visit, he anticipates that Harry will have to rebuild the family’s trust after the scathing attacks of recent years.
But recent moves such as the appointment of new public relations experts – and a notable softening of his stance towards the family – suggest Harry is preparing to extend an olive branch with the reunion, first reported by Sun.
Fitzwilliams said of the early meeting. ‘I’m not surprised. Naturally, it is a normal thing for a child to want to do.
“But what happened, of course, relatively recently, we had (the controversial memoir) Spare early last year and attacks on the royal family in interviews he gave to promote it.” A lot of it was very, very reckless.
“But the Sussexes have just strengthened their communications team with two new appointments and I think that’s significant, because I think they’re paying more attention to their PR now, which they wouldn’t (have considered before).
‘Who advised Harry about Spare, when he told us how many Taliban he killed, when he talked about experimenting with drugs, freezing his penis and losing his virginity?
‘He was someone who just did his own thing and didn’t pay attention to the essential part of public relations: the importance of his brand.
“But now they realize that their brand is very, very important and they are in a situation where they are monetizing their royal connections through Netflix and Meghan’s American Riviera Orchard.
“But on the other hand, there have been no attacks on the royal family recently, nor will there be any for quite obvious reasons.
“The difficulty they have now is that they have to be trusted if they are going to build or rebuild bridges, because I don’t think members of the royal family trust the Sussexes.”
‘The King has made it clear that his door is always open and Harry will obviously be seeing a lot of him over the coming weeks and months.
“When there is a serious illness, you find yourself in a situation where, privately, quietly, which is not the way the Sussexes normally do things, you have to come to terms.”
The ghostwritten autobiography Spare sparked controversy with its account of an alleged physical assault by Prince William, who Harry also accused of calling Meghan “rude” and “abrasive.”
And the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 addressed clashes with other members of the royal family and an accusation that comments had been made about the skin color of first-born Archie.
A similar accusation resurfaced in Endgame, a book about the monarchy written by journalist Omid Scobie late last year.
Relations have been frosty for years, which wasn’t helped by Harry and Meghan’s revealing interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 (pictured)
Prince Harry’s memoir Spare (pictured at its launch in a bookstore in Australia) also drove an even bigger wedge between him and his family.
Harry and Meghan are now fully settled into life in the US, with the Duke now declaring the United States to be his primary residence.
Prince Harry was perceived to despise his father after he presented an award to an American soldier via video message without wearing Charles’ coronation medal.
He denied accusations of acting as a “spokesperson” for the couple, but there was fury when a Dutch translation of the book claimed the king and Catherine, Princess of Wales, were the royals who had raised questions about Archie’s skin.
Any long-term reconciliation between Harry and Meghan and the rest of the family will take time after these revelations, Fitzwilliams says, not helped by Harry’s perceived slights towards his father, such as not wearing his coronation medal.
But with the family in deep crisis as two of its most important members battle cancer, those conversations can begin in earnest now.
“This is a new era for the royal family and it makes sense, both in the short and long term, for the breach to be repaired,” Mr Fitzwilliams continued.
‘The problem is that the world is watching because royalty cannot do anything without being seen, as the most prominent royal family in the world. Harry has opted out and has not yet done so.
“He will be very aggrieved by what has happened to the king and will no doubt be deeply sorry for Catherine, but William does not trust him and it will be some time before he does.”
“There is tremendous pressure on William and Catherine at the moment, for obvious reasons, and of course they have their family, so they won’t be seeing Harry, from what I understand.”
Meghan, who has not been in the UK since 2022, is unlikely to join him yet as he begins to mend relations with his estranged family.
But if the gap between the royals closes, Fitzwilliams suspects she could accompany her husband to Britain once again, while he begins his life anew in the United States.
‘What happens in the long term? I suspect the meeting with the King will be one of several (to come),’ she said.
People will be watching to see to what extent Megan and the king’s grandchildren, Archie and Lily, might be involved in the future.
‘That will be an indication of how things are going between Harry and his father, and eventually between Harry, his brother and his sister-in-law.
“The Sussexes have been quite unpredictable in the past but of course I bear in mind that King Charles is recovering from cancer and the prognosis is good and it has been wonderful to see him away from home but it will be a long process.
And Catherine is similar. It’s a very, very stressful time and during a difficult illness you need people you can trust.
‘If there have been problems, clearly they must wait until a time that is mutually convenient (for them to be resolved). We’re in new territory.’
Following this week’s Invictus ceremony, Meghan and Harry were invited to Nigeria by the country’s Chief of Defense Staff to take part in “cultural activities.”
They will meet with service members and their families and participate in “traditional cultural activities,” according to Nigerian media.
