Prince Harry has issued a rare update on King Charles III after their first meeting in a long time, and it could be the first of other steps towards rebuilding their relationship.
You could say the pair have a rocky relationship, and have done for some time, and it was 19 months ago when they saw each other last.
The Duke of Sussex left his home in sunny California to visit the UK to see Charles following his cancer diagnosis.
But royal fans have been shocked and happy to hear about yesterday's long-awaited reunion (10 September).
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Things have been strained since Harry moved to the US to start a new life with his wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Harry stepped down as a working senior royal family member in 2020, and Charles's last meeting with him was less than 24 hours after the announcement about the King’s health issues.
Rarely did the pair see each other since his move, but it seems like reconciliation could now be on the horizon.
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Harry attended The Gherkin in the City of London on Wednesday evening and rubbed shoulders with corporate sponsors and Government ministers.
He’d just come from Charles's London residence at Clarence House, where they met face-to-face.
The meeting comes just months after Harry publicly talked of his hopes of a reconciliation with his family.
The 54-minute-long meeting was asked about by a reporter, with them asking how Charles was doing.
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Harry responded: "Yes, he’s great, thank you."
Charlotte Griffiths, editor-at-large at The Mail on Sunday, revealed the meeting was ‘brief’ because of the King’s schedule and Harry’s event that evening, but that it was ‘significant’.
“Harry had a meeting in London this morning and then made sure he kept his schedule completely clear so that he could see his father at a moment’s notice,” Griffiths said, per Yahoo!. “It was a last-minute diary plan—it wasn’t in Harry’s diary—but perhaps that’s because he was nervous about leaks. He was prepared to drop everything to see his father and he let that be known to the palace.”
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As for whether this short meeting could open up doors for them to patch up their relationship, a source told Vanity Fair that the King has always left that ‘door open’.
“The king has always left the door open for Harry to come back to Britain. Charles genuinely misses him and it pains him that there is a rift, but the ball is in Harry’s court,” says a source who knows the King. “If details of their meeting are leaked, then it will be a short-lived reconciliation. The issue of trust is very important to the King, and has been breached in the past,” said the source, adding: “Harry has to prove he can keep the conversations between them private if he wants to really have a relationship with his father.”
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward said, per The Sun, that the meeting was a ‘positive step, but a necessary step’.
She said: “Charles had to see his son at some point. He isn’t going to get any younger, and he wants to meet his grandchildren, as a family man and father. For this entire trip, Harry has been trying very hard to get on everyone’s good side with events and donations.”
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She added: “That he is willing to welcome Prince Harry into his home shows Charles’s soft side.”
Topics: Prince Harry, King Charles III, Royal Family, UK News
Britt Jones