Royal insiders have claimed it would have been logistically easier for Prince Harry to see his King Charles had he taken up the offer of a royal residency last week
King Charles offered up a royal residency for Prince Harry for his UK trip last week – but his youngest son chose to stay in a hotel instead, according to sources.
Harry, 39, no longer has an official residence in the UK after vacating Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, Berkshire, in June last year. However, he visited the country last week to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games and, according to royal insiders, was offered by King Charles a royal residency at which to stay.
Yet, the Duke is believed to declined this offer and chose to use a hotel instead. It is understood a royal residency would have made things logistically easier for Harry to see his 75-year-old father despite Charles’s busy schedule.
The pair didn’t meet in the end – despite Harry addressing an audience at St Paul’s Cathedral just two miles from the monarch’s garden party function at Buckingham Palace. Those close to Harry insist he put in a request to see his father well in advance of the visit, which was “long on the radar”.
But friends of the King, who has cancer, continue to stress that, to the best of their understanding, Harry neither requested to see his father nor invited him to attend the service at St Paul’s last Tuesday to celebrate the Invictus anniversary.
Sources close to Harry expressed their bemusement Charles did not see his son on a rare trip to the UK. They noted that, despite his cancer treatment, the King made time to attend a Buckingham Palace garden party on Wednesday afternoon, hold his weekly audience with Rishi Sunak that evening and undertake a military engagement in Wiltshire on Thursday.
“It’s all very sad,” said a friend of Charles. “While it is true that the King is understandably wary about meeting with Harry, given the publicity circus that seems to surround all such visits, he did of course agree to see his son at the most vulnerable moment of his illness [in February], and at very short notice.
“While he was hardly going to roll out the red carpet the moment this Invictus trip was announced, with doctors advising him to focus on his treatment and recovery, the idea that he refused to find space in his diary … well, let’s say recollections may vary once again.”
