PRINCE Harry’s public presence could be preventing a reunion with his family, a royal expert said.
ITV’s Royal Editor Chris Ship said “you can see why the King is very conscious” of how he interacts with his younger son.
The royal expert made the comments while appearing on The Sun’s popular Royal Feature show.
He was joined by fellow royal correspondent Sarah Hewson, who agreed that an open relationship with Prince Harry could be “potentially damaging for the King.”
Over the years, Prince Harry has seen his relationship with his family sour after the release of his memoir Spare and his Netflix docuseries.
The Duke of Sussex stepped down from the Royal Family four years ago, and has since been involved in a legal matters regarding his level of security protection.
Filling in for Matt Wilkinson, guest host Bronte Coy put forward that this court case could play a factor in the King’s resistance to engage with his son.
“I think it is a factor, of course it is [but] it’s part of a wider problem,” said Chris.
“How can the King and Prince William, were he ever to talk to his brother again, how can they be sure that any of those conversations won’t end up in a book or in a future Netflix series?
“They can’t be sure of that given the very personal things that Harry disclosed in his book.”
Chris pointed out that conversations between the Royals could also be disclosed in court.
“If you add on this new layer of his fight with the Home Office about whether or not he gets Royal level security, you can see why the King is very conscious of him,” he explained.
“His legal advisors will be saying: ‘Well, this court case is still live and meeting with your son and having conversations might be a potential problem.’”
Sarah pointed out that Harry has cited this security issue as the reason why his wife and two children never join him on his visits to the UK.
“That then means that the King doesn’t get to see his grandchildren,” she explained.
Harry publicly announced his intention to see his father when he visited in May to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games.
The Prince’s team disclosed that the King was unable to meet with his son due to scheduling conflicts.
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 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.
In May he visited the UK for a three-day visit without seeing King Charles or Prince William.
Buckingham Palace gave no public response to the claim.
Sarah described the action of Harry’s team as “problematic in itself.”
“I mean just putting that information out in the public domain tells you everything and it goes back to trust,” she said.
“If you can’t trust that private conversations aren’t going to end up in the public domain somewhere, then how can you have a conversation at all?”
She pointed out that it later emerged that Harry had been offered a place to stay at Buckingham Palace during his visit, making it “easier for him to see the King.”
However, Harry decided to stay at a hotel instead, a decision which he said was made because of “security reasons.”
Prince Harry is believed to have last visited with his father in January, after the King’s cancer diagnosis was made public.
