Hopes of repairing a strained relationship between King Charles and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, have been quashed after the King’s schedule was, according to the Duke’s spokesperson, too full to meet with his son.

The Duke’s visit to London this week, from his home in California, for the 10th anniversary of his favorite charity, the Invictus Games for wounded military servicemen and veterans, had sparked hopes of a reunion between father and son, but a representative of the Duke said that they will not be able to meet because of  “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,”  a representative of the Duke said, The Telegraph reports.

The King has delivered “a harsh message of rejection to Prince Harry,” according to Tom Sykes, the royal correspondent for the Daily Beast and a longtime observer of the Windsors. Not a single senior member of the family attended a church service on Wednesday, at London’s historic St. Paul’s Cathedral, honoring the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games, as the King was holding at the same time a palace garden party, which all the senior royals – with the exception of Harry’s brother, Prince William and his wife, Princess Katherine, who is being treated for cancer – were reportedly ordered to attend.

The lack of a meeting with King Charles, is “quite a snub,” a royal expert, Michael Cole, said on Tuesday per the Daily Mail.

“For the King to not see his younger son, Prince Harry, although the two men will be only two miles apart tomorrow afternoon, gives an indication of the depth of the divide,” he said.

The King’s non-meeting with Harry comes despite Charles undergoing  treatments for an undisclosed form of cancer, and only recently resuming some public duties, amid reports that the cancer is serious and that the King’s health is  “not good.” At Wednesday’s garden party, however, the King looked hale and happily greeted members of the public who’d been invited onto the palace grounds.

The royal snub is the latest setback for Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. The couple for the last four years have been feuding bitterly with their family. Since January 2020, when they announced on Instagram that they are “stepping back” from their duties as senior royals and moving to North America, Meghan and Harry have lobbed bomb after bomb at the Windsors, in interviews, in books written by a sympathetic journalist, in documentaries and in Harry’s biting bestselling memoir, “Spare”. The couple claimed that the royals were cold and unwelcoming to Meghan and made racist remarks about her unborn first child (the royals denied this).

The couple’s most recent face to face interactions, back in the UK with the other royals, necessitated by various must-attend events such as the funerals of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth, and Charles’ coronation, have been limited and strained. On his current visit to London, Harry is not expected to see anyone from his family.

The Duke is staying at a hotel during his visit to London, having not been offered a place to stay at his family’s many residences, according to GB News. According to the news outlet, he was refused a bed at Windsor Castle last September, with the palace citing “lack of notice” as a reason. Last year, the King asked Harry and Meghan to vacate Frogmore Cottage, their residence on the grounds of the Windsor Estate, which they’d previously been using as a place to stay during trips to England from their home in Montecito, California.

Prince Harry’s last trip to the UK was in February to see his father after the announcement of his cancer diagnosis. That whirlwind visit, as the Sun reported, put the royal rift on full display, as Prince Harry was only allowed to see his father for less than an hour, in the presence of his stepmother, Queen Consort Camilla, whom Harry had criticized in “Spare”, accusing her of “dangerous” leaks to the media. Notably, Harry on that visit did not meet with his brother, the Prince of Wales, from whom he may be permanently estranged, according to People magazine.   

During Harry’s current trip to London, Meghan is again staying home in Montecito with their two young children. The Duchess is said to be facing a “tough” challenge to sell her new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, to the British public. 

The Duchess recently rolled out the business, which sells products meant to provide a taste of her luxurious Montecito lifestyle, by putting on the market high end jams that are supposed to reflect her sensibility and good taste. In recent weeks, she is reported to have sent jars of her new strawberry jam to celebrities including Kris Jenner, Chrissy Teigen, and Mindy Kaling in an aggressive marketing push. 

For the UK rollout of American Riviera Orchard, Meghan has hired a new communications officer, according to The Telegraph. The public relations executive, The Telegraph reports, has the challenge of solving the problem of “Meghan’s appalling public image.”

The challenge, crisis PR expert Mark Borkowski told The Telegraph, is “one of the most difficult jobs in PR…. second only perhaps to doing PR for Prince Andrew,” the King’s disgraced younger brother.

Harry’s current visit to London is expected to be a short one. He and Meghan are expected soon in Nigeria for an unofficial royal visit. On her podcast recently, Meghan said she is “43 percent Nigerian.”