PRINCE Harry jetted to the UK for a three-day stay last week but didn’t meet with his cancer-stricken dad King Charles.
Instead, the Duke of Sussex released a statement saying the monarch’s busy schedule prevented a reunion – and an expert has claimed it sent a message to Charles.
Prince Harry arrived last Tuesday and left on Thursday evening, and his spokesperson confirmed: “It unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full programme.
“The Duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.”
Speaking on The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show, Newsweek’s Chief Royal Correspondent Jack Royston said the message was carefully worded.
The royal expert told The Sun’s Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson: “This was a very delicately worded statement and Harry isn’t always delicate.
“Sometimes he’s a bit of a bull in a china shop, but this was actually probably perfectly worded.
“It said just enough so that we all knew that it was Charles who had prevented the meeting or at least the palace side that had prevented the meeting, and that Harry had wanted to meet his father but it also did keep the tone warm and positive.
“So he said basically due to his schedule, but also got in there ‘and other priorities’.”
Jack claimed King Charles had a busy schedule on Wednesday hosting the famous Buckingham Palace Garden Party, he didn’t on Tuesday, which could have been a window for a reunion.
He continued: “But Charles did, in Harry’s view, clearly have some other priorities but Harry didn’t put the boot in, he didn’t put venom in the statement.
“He just made sure that people knew that he had wanted the meeting, and that it was the palace side who had stopped it from happening.”
Prince Harry travelled on Tuesday from his Montecito mansion in a whirlwind three-day visit for the glitzy Invictus event at St Paul’s Cathedral on May 8.
Harry and Charles last reunited at Clarence House in February for their first face-to-face meeting in 16 months.
The prince flew to the UK alone without Meghan or their children Archie and Lilibet.
Harry did not see his brother Prince William – but had been “keen” to see his dad while visiting.
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry, 39, also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan, in his memoir.
In Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
William has been stung by his brother’s attacks and has not spoken to Harry since Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
This follows Harry slamming his family in his bombshell Spare memoir, and criticising the royals in their Harry & Meghan documentary.
Charles, 75, resumed public duties last week for the first time since beginning cancer treatment.
Sources claimed the King had agreed to let his distant son stay in a royal residence for the trip – but the offer was turned down.
A spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex said: “It unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full programme.
“The Duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.”
Harry is understood to have stayed in a hotel during his visit.
As reported by the Sunday Times, insiders close to His Majesty alleged it would have been more practical to arrange a meeting between the father and son should Harry have opted for a royal residence.
However, friends close to the duke insist he did his best to arrange seeing Charles before the long-awaited trip.
Following his UK trip, Prince Harry flew to Nigeria with Meghan Markle for a three-day visit in an effort to get the country to host the Invictus Games in 2029.
Harry and Meghan, who is of Nigerian descent, met with service members and their families, and participated in traditional cultural activities.
