A royal expert has claimed that when Prince Harry publicly corrected false quotes attributed to him, he “fell into a trap” laid by his “palace enemies” who would rather he didn’t reconcile with the King
The world was watching during Prince Harry’s recent visit back to the UK to see if the much-speculated reunion with King Charles would finally come about.
The father and son had not seen each other for 19 months when Harry’s car rolled up at Clarence House, the monarch’s London residence, and spent just under an hour with Charles catching up over a cup of tea.
Initially, little was known about what happened during their meeting, with Prince Harry – who has been candid about his difficulties with his family members since leaving life as a working royal behind – staying tight-lipped about what had gone on. Then source quotes appeared in the press attributed to the Duke that stirred everything up.
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Sources told The Sun said that Harry had found his time with his father to be unusually formal, and that he compared it to being an “official visitor” rather than a family member. The report also alleged incorrectly that Harry had handed over a framed photo of himself, Meghan, Prince Archie, and Princess Lilibet.
However, the Duke’s spokesperson quickly hit back at the inaccuracies. “Recent reporting of the Duke’s view of the tone of the meeting, is categorically false,” the spokesperson said. “The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.
“Presumably, those same sources have also chosen to disclose that gifts were exchanged. While we would have preferred such details to remain private, for the sake of clarity we can confirm that a framed photograph was handed over, however the image did not contain the Duke and Duchess.”
Now, royal expert, Tom Sykes, has said that in his view, Harry’s public correction of the inaccurate quotes saw the Duke of Sussex fall into a “trap” set by those who would prefer he did not reconcile with the King.
“I felt Harry had walked right into its jaws by taking the bait, and issuing one of his trademark angry outbursts at palace operatives, accusing the ‘men in grey suits’ of leaking ‘pure invention’ to the media with the aim of ‘sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.'”
The expert explained in his Royalist newsletter that in his opinion, “having provoked a response, anti-reconciliation courtiers would now be able to say that Harry had betrayed his promise not to re-escalate tensions with the family or stoke controversy around the September 10 meeting which saw Harry meet the King for ‘a private tea’ at Clarence House, the first time that the King had met with his younger son for 19 months.”
In response to Harry’s blistering public correction, a palace source was quoted as saying they were “saddened and perplexed” by his statement, something that the royal expert felt was as though, “The trap just snapped shut.”
Buckingham Palace did not respond when the Mirror contacted them for comment.
