Ever since it was announced that Prince Harry would grace the nation with his presence for an Invictus Games service on Wednesday at St Paul’s Cathedral, the assumption has been that he would use the trip as an opportunity to catch up, however fleetingly, with his father.
They managed half an hour in each other’s company in February, the day after King Charles revealed he had cancer.
By all accounts it was not the warmest of encounters, but it had been thought that given both men will be in central London on Wednesday afternoon – Charles hosting a Buckingham Palace garden party, Harry just up the road in the City – a cordial cup of tea might at the very least be on the cards.
But there have been no public overtures from Harry or anyone in his circle to suggest plans for the pair to meet.
Despite both royals being in central London on Wednesday afternoon, they are not expected to meet
The King’s schedule, in any case, is packed that day with a meeting with the Prime Minister in the evening. And so, unless things change over the next 48 hours, father and son will pass like ships in the night.
If so, that would really be quite something, when you stop to think about it. The idea that the King, who despite his illness has already returned to as many Royal duties as he can manage, might not catch up with his youngest son who lives 5,000 miles away would be, if you ask me, the clearest indication we’ve had so far of how utterly broken Harry’s relationship is with his father.
When serious illness strikes in a family, there is often a human tendency for old feuds and disagreements to be cast aside. People usually come together, the severity of the situation acting as a focus – and a reminder that, in the end, blood is thicker than water.
Many thought – and hoped – that this would be the case with the Royals; that faced with a worrying illness, an end might be put to the months of open hostility between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the folks back home and everyone might do their best to bring Harry – if not Meghan – back into the fold.
If nothing else, perhaps, a chance for Charles to arrange to see his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, who seem to be growing up rootless in a Californian bubble, estranged from their wider family.
Instead, what we have seen has been the opposite.
Just a few weeks ago, the Duke and Duchess were ‘downgraded’ on the official royal website.
Full profiles were replaced with a significantly smaller, joint biography at the bottom of the page – below (horror of horrors) the Duke of York.
Also, Harry, again with Prince Andrew, is no longer on the list of those who can serve as Counsellors of State, standing in for the King at official ceremonies.
Talk about tough love.
I have no doubt that the King is deeply fond of Harry. As his father, he always will be. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be angry with him for the terrible things he has said and done, not just to Charles himself and Queen Camilla, but to William and his wife Catherine.
And let’s not forget the anguish and sadness Harry caused the late Queen and Prince Philip, and how he and Meghan blighted their final years with their attention-seeking hysterics and vile accusations.
If Charles does not to meet Harry next week, perhaps it’s an indication that his illness – rather than softening his attitude – may have had the opposite effect in regard to his headstrong son.
Could it have hardened his view of someone who, for all that he remains his son, has nevertheless inflicted nothing but misery and suffering in recent years on those who really care about him, who have stood beside him in his hour of need, chiefly Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales.
And could you really blame him? Why should such serially disloyal behaviour be rewarded with kindness, patience and forgiveness, when Prince Harry himself has never shown any towards them?
Why should he just be able to waltz back into all their lives whenever he fancies (possibly with a TV documentary film crew in tow), regardless of all the damage he’s done?
He may be 39, but in many ways Prince Harry is still a child, a spoilt, entitled brat who can’t see past his own navel.
It’s time someone taught him that he can’t have it all his own way. It’s time he learned that actions have consequences.
It’s time he saw what happens when you repeatedly betray the ones who love you. It’s time he understood that trust is hard-earned but easily lost.
What better person to do that than his own father? I hope Charles sticks to his guns and passes over the chance to see Harry on Wednesday. After all, the job of a parent is to do what’s right, not what’s easy.
- A new city councillor goads rivals: ‘Anyone that stands with Zionism: we’re coming for you. Free Palestine!’ A Green Party councillor in Leeds shouts ‘Allahu Akbar’ while his supporter waves a Palestinian flag. This is not politics, it’s sectarianism.
- After the horrific killing of a 14-year-old boy in Hainault last week in an incident during which a female police officer almost lost a hand, what are we waiting for? All officers should be armed with tasers. Expecting them to hold back the tide of knife crime otherwise is the equivalent of asking the crew of the Titanic to bail out using a teaspoon.
Be fab, Joanna
Joanna Lumley as her Absolutely Fabulous character Patsy
Joanna Lumley will announce the results from the British judges during next Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest. Please, Joanna, do so in the style of your Absolutely Fabulous character, Patsy. ‘Douze points, darlings. Crack open the Bolly!’ Lord knows we could do with more Patsy in these grey times.
- Madonna is stress-testing Groucho Marx’s theory that ‘you are only as old as the woman you feel’. I’ve huge respect for the singer, especially for being fit enough to perform like a woman half her 65 years. But there’s no disguising reality: she’s old enough to be most of her dancers’ grandmother. It’s all a bit creepy. Or do I mean crepey?
- When I think of Boris Johnson, many things come to mind – but not a coiled mamba, as described by allies who say he’s poised to re-enter the political fray. Mambas are sinuous, stealthy creatures. Boris is about as sinuous and stealthy as a beach ball. Still, if he can help the Tories bounce back, who cares. We’ll all be doing the mambo parliamentiano.
A stage version of Fawlty Towers opened last night in London’s West End.
John Cleese claims he only agreed to the production to earn enough never to ‘fly commercial’ again. Given the state of Theatreland, that seems a tad ambitious.
Anyway, if the show is stripped of all the original anti-German jokes and less-than complimentary asides about Irish builders and Spanish waiters, there
John Cleese, who played as Basil Fawlty, claims he only agreed to the production to earn enough never to ‘fly commercial’ again
As the General Election fast approaches (and the latest suggestion, I’ve been told, is July), civil servants are preparing for a handover of power. ‘We haven’t yet got to the point of euthanasia,’ says one senior mandarin, ‘but the patient is definitely receiving palliative care.’
