We knew it would happen and it’s just as funny and horrible as we expected. As soon as rumors began circulating that the Sussex family would visit the UK in July, we knew that Prince William would spend four weeks screaming, crying and throwing up about it. We knew that he would live-brief his nervous breakdown to the royal rota, who would dutifully act as stenographers to his every unhinged rage-squeal. So here we are. Not content to feed his crash-out briefing to Becky English at the Mail, William and his office also gave the Mail’s Charlotte Griffiths this story, about the friction between William and King Charles.
The prospect of King Charles reconciling with his younger son may have had the unfortunate side- effect of souring his relationship with his elder, I can reveal. Royal insiders this weekend claimed that the King’s willingness to extend an olive branch to Harry has led to an increase in long-simmering tensions with William, who is in no mood to forgive his brother.
‘The King’s relationship with William is not in a good place,’ one well-connected source told me. ‘They are at a very low ebb.’
However those claims were last night vehemently denied by those close to both the King and William. One source close to the Prince of Wales insisted that his relationship with the King is ‘incredibly positive’ and ‘unchanged’.
Rumours of tension between the King and William have been fuelled by what some insiders claimed was a froideur during Trooping the Colour last weekend. The MoS understands that just a few hours before the event marking the King’s official birthday, William learned that Meghan would be coming to the UK with Harry. The Prince of Wales is said to believe his father is making a ‘misjudgment’ in making efforts to rebuild a relationship with Harry, sources say.
In contrast, William shows no signs of wanting to forgive his brother for the damaging claims he made in his memoir Spare and in a bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview in which he accused an unnamed royal of racism. William has allegedly barred any mention of his brother in his presence, with insiders saying he remains unwilling to even contemplate a reconciliation. The siblings are believed not to have spoken since the late Queen’s funeral in 2022.
Some sources said that Princess Catherine, who usually maintains a flawless smile at high-profile events, appeared visibly tense during last Saturday’s pageantry. Reports noted that her usual warmth and composure ‘faltered’ and she seemed reluctant to smile and wave for the cameras from her horse-drawn carriage. At the time, this was put down to her having to face a barrage of jeers from anti-monarchy protesters, but sources claim that was not the full story.
One insider said: ‘Queen Camilla, King Charles, and the Princess of Wales were not outwardly warm together that day and the reason was not just the protesters. Relations were decidedly frosty backstage.’
Another source said: ‘So much of what they do is performative. But there was little performance on display that day.’
Some details of Harry’s UK trip are believed to have been brokered by Theo Rycroft, the King’s hugely influential deputy private secretary who has emerged as a key peacemaker between Charles and Harry. It is understood that while the King has offered Harry and his family accommodation in a royal residence next month, he has yet to receive a reply. On a previous visit, Harry rejected a similar offer to stay at Buckingham Palace.
The Mail on Sunday was first told of Meghan’s plans to accompany her husband to London last Friday. By Saturday morning, Kensington Palace was also learning more detail about the Sussexes’ visit. While privately digesting the news, William and Catherine put on a brave face on Horse Guards Parade, where they were accompanied by their children, Prince George, 12, Princess, Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, eight. It is claimed that by the time the Prince and Princess of Wales attended Royal Ascot on Wednesday, the dust had settled enough for Catherine to curtsey for her father-in-law, and at one point appeared to extend an arm towards him. She was also seen enthusiastically laughing and joking with her husband during the day, although they left early at 5.50pm – almost an hour before the King and the rest of the Royal Family.
I’m looking at the timeline provided by Griffiths – she says William and Kate learned on June 13th, just hours before Trooping, that Meghan would come to the UK with Harry. Who told them? My guess is the people on William’s staff who sit on RAVEC. Harry must have given RAVEC the necessary 30-day notice about his plans to bring his family over, and that just happened to line up with Trooping. And now they’re retconning why William and Kate were so grumpy at Trooping. It wasn’t just the protesters and sparse crowds, it was MEGHAN! It was the king refusing to BAN Harry and Meghan from William’s country!!
Incidentally, the more William thrashes around, screaming that he’ll never forgive his brother, the more everyone will realize that Harry has not tried to contact William, nor has Harry asked for “forgiveness.” As for the friction between William and Charles… lol. IMO, Charles has mostly stopped caring. Charles knows he can’t count on his heir whatsoever, so all of William’s threats, tantrums, antics and briefings fall flat. Charles knows that at a fundamental level, William is simply too lazy to do much of anything.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
