Princes Harry and William Avoid Each Other at London as Mystery Deepens Over Whether Prodigal Prince Will See King

The lack of a meeting at London between two scions of the House of Windsor— Princes Harry and William — puts into sharp relief the rift running through the royal family. The Prince of Wales and Duke of Sussex were both at the nation’s capital on Wednesday. Prince Harry was at Chatham House for an Invictus Games Foundation event. Prince William, Kensington Palace explained in a statement, visited Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain, or the London Welsh School, to send “best wishes to Team Wales ahead of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.”The two venues are separated by a car ride of about an hour, Chatham House, on St. James Square, is a mere four-minute drive from Buckingham Palace. That 755-room pile, a royal residence and the administrative center of the British monarchy, was at the center of a chaotic beginning to Prince Harry’s trip. The Crown withdrew his invitation to stay there, citing a lack of communication and staffing challenges. Prince Harry called that “disappointing.”The palace’s statement that there would be no room at the proverbial inn came just 15 minutes after the younger prince put out a statement that he had decided to rest his head there. Prince Harry had earlier said that his wife Meghan Markle and their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet —who have not seen their grandfather, the king, in some four years — would accompany him on his trip back to Blighty.The duke ended up leaving his family behind due to an ongoing row with the Crown over security. The British Home Office takes the position that once the Sussexes stepped back from being “working royals” in 2020 they were no longer entitled to blanket protection and instead will have their arrangements determined on a case-by-case basis.King Charles III reads the King’s Speech at the opening of Parliament on July 17, 2024. Kirsty Wigglesworth, Getty ImagesTuesday saw yet another disappointment for Prince Harry when his $67 million lawsuit against the publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited, of the Daily Mail was dismissed on all counts. Prince Harry testified in January that the tabloid’s invasive practices had made his “wife’s life an absolute misery,” but Justice Matthew Nicklin of the English High Court ruled that the duke failed to “prove that the information complained of had been obtained unlawfully.”Prince Harry, in a statement following the ruling, denounced it as a “complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected. However, the lengths to which the Court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted.” Associated Newspapers called it “an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists” and a “magnificent vindication.” Associated Newspapers plans to attempt to recoup its legal costs, which ran to more than $50 million.The deterioration of the relationship between Princes Harry and William is especially stark given the indelible image of the two of them as teenagers walking side-by-side behind their mother Princess Diana’s coffin in 1997. The British press referred to the princes and their wives as the “Fab Four,” and the group even chartered the Royal Foundation together in 2018. By 2019, though, the Sussexes had withdrawn from the Royal Foundation and Prince Harry acknowledged that he and his brother were “certainly on different paths.” Then in 2020 came the shock of “Mexit,” or the retreat of Prince Harry and his duchess from their royal roles. A statement from Queen Elizabeth II declared that “although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life.”That “independent life” was conducted largely in the Golden State. In 2021 the couple sat down with Oprah Winfrey and discussed alleged racism within the royal family. Ms. Markle told Ms. Winfrey with respect to the Princess of Wales, Catherine Middleton, “She made me cry. It hurt my feelings.” Prince Harry said that he was cut off from the family purse, and was sustained only by his inheritance from Diana. Prince William responded, “We’re very much not a racist family.”The prince and princess of Wales, William and Kate, at London, October 13, 2022.Kin Cheung, APWhile the brothers both attended their grandmother’s funeral, Prince Harry was reportedly incensed that Prince William did not offer him a seat on a plane to visit the ailing monarch at Balmoral Palace in Scotland. The Duke of Sussex was required to make his own way and arrived only after Queen Elizabeth had breathed her last. The rupture was reified in 2023 by the release of Prince Harry’s memoir, “Spare.” He accused his brother of assaulting him in 2019 over an argument over the duke’s wife. Prince Harry writes: “It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.” He also reports that King Charles said to his sons, “Please, boys – don’t make my final years a misery.” The king, 77, is battling cancer.

Princes Harry and William Avoid Each Other at London as Mystery Deepens Over Whether Prodigal Prince Will See King

Princes Harry and William Avoid Each Other at London as Mystery Deepens Over Whether Prodigal Prince Will See King

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