Royal relations have reached a new low, with the sending of birthday wishes to Prince Harry by King Charles and Prince William’s offices on Sunday revealing a triumph of performative style over significant substance.
The clearest proof of this is that none of the senior royals intend to meet with Prince Harry when he visits the United Kingdom later this month, and they have no plans to do so in the near to medium term, according to reliable sources.
According to The Daily Beast, Harry is not anticipated to stay in a royal residence, but rather in a prominent London hotel, as he did the last time, further solidifying his separation and alienation from his family of origin.
When asked about the possibility of meeting with his father or brother on his next trip, Harry’s old pal told The Daily Beast, “Harry is not expecting a call-up from the king or William.”
According to insiders, William refuses to see Harry due to his unforgiveable words against him and his wife in his memoir Spare. He also blames Harry for leading Kate to be accused of asking discriminatory inquiries regarding Harry’s children’s skin tone.
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry and Meghan Markle revealed that members of the royal family had raised “concerns” about their children’s skin hue.
According to a book by journalist Omid Scobie, who has close ties to the Sussex family, King Charles and Kate Middleton made the claimed comments.
William is angry that Harry and Meghan continue to refer to his wife as Kate, rather than the more regal Catherine as she has wanted, as previously reported by The Daily Beast.
“William’s focus is on his family right now, and he won’t be meeting up with Harry,” a Waleses acquaintance told The Daily Beast. They noted that the brothers did not communicate or engage while attending a funeral for an uncle on the Spencer side of their family last month.
Meanwhile, the monarch refuses to meet with Harry, citing the undeniably difficult situation of his own son suing “His Majesty’s” government. Harry is embroiled in a bitter and expensive legal dispute with the British government about his security arrangement. His side has told The Daily Beast that they feel the king should and should intervene on his behalf, but official sources in the king’s office say this would be completely unacceptable.
Despite William and the king’s social media accounts sending Harry birthday wishes on Sunday, his biological family has refused to meet with him, putting an end to hopes for family reunion.
A few days later, it’s difficult to discern what the objective of those messages was, save from possibly taunting Harry.
This is likely to be considered by Harry’s team. Harry’s allies have already told The Daily Beast that the royals are gaslighting him (and the public) by giving contradictory messages publicly and privately. The king’s side has always stated that Charles wants to reunite with his son and loves him, but Harry’s team claims that the king’s actions have made reunion more impossible.
They point to Harry’s exile from the extremely secure house Frogmore Cottage, part of the Windsor royal estate, which they claim the king knew would significantly curtail visits by Harry and his family, given Harry’s lack of automatic entitlement to police protection in the United Kingdom.
This weekend appeared to be more of the same, with the king’s office oddly attempting to downplay the significance of the message sent by the king’s social media accounts, with an official source saying the palace “sometimes posted for landmark birthdays of non-working royals,” adding that “generally” non-landmark birthdays are not the subject of social media posts.
A royal insider told The Daily Beast about William and Kate’s message: “It was simply a corporate thing. “Happy Birthday, blah blah blah.”
They claimed it was issued to “align” Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace “on a little bit of essentially routine messaging around Harry.”
When Prince Harry announced his visit to England to present the WellChild awards on September 30, British media reported that Charles would not be able to meet with him because he will be in Scotland until October.
This is a weak justification at best; he and Harry have well-documented transportation access.
Harry’s staff declined to comment on how he felt about his family’s birthday messages, as well as his plans for a visit to the United Kingdom later this month. The king’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The king’s refusal to arrange a meeting with Harry demonstrates the monarch’s reluctance to contact with his son, regardless of birthday greetings. Whether this makes the monarch appear hypocritical and heartless is up to his press office to decide.
On his most recent journey to the United Kingdom, Harry stated publicly that he had been denied a meeting with his father, but that he wanted one. It was up to his press staff to determine if this implied he was pressing a cancer patient.
Harry’s office said at the time: “In regard to the many requests and continuous speculation on whether or not the duke will meet with his father while in the United Kingdom this week, it, sadly, will not be possible due to His Majesty’s packed schedule. The Duke, of course, understands his father’s schedule of engagements and other interests and wants to visit him soon.”