For all of Prince Harry’s talk about loving his family and reports that he planned to spend a month in the U.K. this summer to reconnect with his father, friends of King Charles III have said that relations between the son and the father have reached a low point.
Among the many disputes between the two, Harry has allegedly resorted to “emotional blackmail,” threatening the king with the possibility that he’ll never see his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, the friends have told the Daily Beast. The friends allege that the California-based Duke of Sussex is trying to put pressure on Charles to use his influence to reinstate Harry’s automatic police security when he and his family visit the U.K.
Harry was stripped of this privilege when he and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped away from royal duties and moved to California in 2020. The decision to end this protection for Harry didn’t come from his father, but from the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC), a government agency that works with the Royal Household, Metropolitan Police and the Home Office to coordinate security for royal family members.
Since then, Harry has gone to court in the U.K. to have the armed police protection reinstated, while the British government pushes back. He has said he pays for his family’s security in the United States and has offered to pay himself for police protection while in the U.K. But he has been rejected on the grounds that armed British police officers are not for hire.
Even after reportedly spending more than a million dollars on lawyers, Harry has lost round after round in his court fight over security, Daily Beast reported. It’s not immediately clear whether Charles has the authority to overrule a RAVEC decision, or whether he’s want to use his position to intervene.
Harry reignited the security row last week during an interview for an ITV documentary on tabloid press abuses, the Daily Beast reported. During the interview, Harry claimed that his American wife Meghan Markle could not safely travel to the U.K., sharing his fears that she could be a target of an acid or knife attack, triggered by negative tabloid coverage of her.
Harry did not directly mention his children, Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, but he has made it clear in the past that he considers them targets, the Daily Beast said. It’s been documented that Meghan and the children have been the subject of online racist abuse. A source close to Harry insisted to the Daily Beast that the vile “neo-Nazi and extremists'” threats against the duke are very real and rejected the idea that he is using his own children as leverage to “blackmail” the king.
Even if Harry’s status within the royal family has changed, his profile as a member of the royal family member — and the threat against him — has not, the source said. “The goal for Prince Harry has been simple — to ensure the safety of himself and his family while in the UK so his children can know his home country.”
But such references to Archie and Lilibet, coming from Harry’s representatives, prompted a longtime friend of the king and of the royal royal family to express concern to the Daily Beast that Harry is in fact using his children as leverage to get what he wants.
“Harry has lost his security case in court, and is now trying the emotional blackmail route to get what he wants instead, cynically using the threat of Archie and Lilibet never meeting their grandfather again as a tactic to coerce the king into overruling RAVEC,” the friend said.
“The idea that the security forces are going to allow the Sussexes to be attacked by an acid-throwing or knife-wielding maniac on British soil is absurd, and Harry knows it,” continued the friend, who has known several generations of royals. “Using it as leverage, as a reason to withhold his kids from their grandfather, is beyond contempt.”
“Charles is being treated for very serious cancer, so even if he could find the time, he cannot just fly to Los Angeles at the drop of a hat, like Harry can — and actually did earlier this year — in the other direction,” the friend concluded.
The friend is referring to Harry flying from California to London in February to see Charles after the king publicly disclosed that he had been diagnosed with cancer. Harry’s representatives alerted the media about his trip, and the duke himself told ABC News that he jumped on a plane “as soon as I could.”
“Look, I love my family,” Harry insisted. “The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that.”
But it turned out that Harry stayed in London fewer than 24 hours and only got the chance to see his father for about 30 to 45 minutes, with a palace aide telling the Daily Mail that the 75-year-old king was “tired” from his cancer treatment. Another royal expert said that Charles is probably still “very angry” with Harry.
When Harry traveled to London in May to participate in the 10th anniversary celebration of the Invictus Games, Charles didn’t make time to see him, even for 15 minutes. While Harry’s spokesperson issued a statement about the two men having scheduling conflicts, the statement also pointedly referred to the king’s “other priorities” — signaling his son’s hurt. Royal watchers opined that Harry was “snubbed” by his father, with journalist and author Richard Kay saying that the relationship between Harry and his father appears to be “more broken than ever.”
Now it’s questionable whether Archie and Lilibet will ever get to know their grandfather, which prompted the old family friend to say, “I wonder, when they are older, how those kids will feel about being denied a meaningful relationship with the King of England.”
“To deprive them of that experience, with all its importance and heritage, seems very misguided,” the friend said. “Of course (Charles) wants to see them.”
The last time Charles saw Archie and Lilibet was during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022. The king has said he’s not satisfied only knowing his California-based grandchildren via video calls. A source told the U.K. tabloid The Mirror: “The king is absolutely committed to being present in all of his grandchildren’s lives.”
Another royal family friend, who is a contemporary of the William and Harry, told the Daily Beast that Harry previously threatened to deny his father access to his children after the king told him and Meghan that they would need to give up Frogmore Cottage, near Windsor Castle, because they no longer lived in England and rarely visit. “One of his lines was that Charles would never see the kids again,” the friend said. “This is him going public with that threat.”
