Prince William’s prestigious joint engagement with his father King Charles III Monday to formalize his appointment as the head of Prince Harry’s old army unit marks “the final nail in the coffin” for any hope of reconciliation between Harry and his family, a source has told The Daily Beast.
The ceremony naming William Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps came after a weekend of claim and counter-claim by the Palace and Team Sussex about what hospitality was extended to Harry on his trip to the U.K. overshadowed Harry and wife Meghan Markle’s very positively received tour of Nigeria.
The royal insider said: “Harry has been stripped of security, stripped of his HRH title, denied a meeting with his father, and now his brother—who loathes him—is being made head of his old regiment. He was not deliberately humiliated last week, but his lack of significance as a member of the royal family was highlighted. It’s notable that the king didn’t send a message of support for Harry’s celebration of ten years of the Invictus Games—and even more notable that he found time to meet David Beckham but not his own son. Making William head of the Army Air Corps was previously announced, but the timing of the handover is the final nail in the coffin. The message that he is now just another outsider could not be any clearer.”
Monday’s engagement took place after a weekend of furious mudslinging from Charles’ camp. In an extraordinary intervention to the London Sunday Times, a royal source said that Harry had asked if he could stay in a royal residence when he was in the U.K. last week, that King Charles had agreed to the request, but that it was Harry who then opted to stay in a hotel.
The article also appeared to push back against Harry’s public claim that his dad had declined to meet him. Harry said in a statement that his father had not met him because he had “other priorities.” But Charles’ camp told the paper that Harry “neither requested to see his father nor invited him to attend the service at St Paul’s.”
A source in Harry’s camp added that they didn’t believe the king’s office didn’t get Harry’s request for a meeting.
Neither Harry’s office nor Buckingham Palace responded to requests from The Daily Beast Monday to clarify who did or didn’t ask for a meeting.
A friend of William and Kate’s told The Daily Beast: “A charitable explanation could be that Harry sent an informal request direct to his dad rather than going through the formal channels which got missed. But it doesn’t really add up. I hate to say it, but it feels a bit like the Palace gaslighting Harry because the simple facts are everyone knew Harry was here last week and wanted to see Charles.
“Charles is very aware of how William feels about the whole Harry situation and he has to respect his position, because he is the Prince of Wales, so a fudge that it was all down to a cock-up could suit everybody.”
The row back in England distracted somewhat from Harry and Meghan’s otherwise successful quasi-royal tour of Nigeria, to promote the Invictus Games. The couple were given a rock star welcome in Africa’s most populous country, from which they were understood to be heading home on Monday. Nigeria has expressed an interest in hosting the Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style event for wounded former servicemen which was set up by Harry when he was a working royal.
Monday’s ceremony on a windswept army base in England saw William and Charles appear together for the first time since Charles was diagnosed with cancer, in a striking and overt statement of unity.
Speaking in front of one of the Apache helicopters so profoundly associated with Harry, Charles praised William as a “very good pilot indeed” adding, “I do hope you’ll go from strength to strength with the Prince of Wales as your new Colonel-in-Chief. I can’t tell you how proud it has made me to have been involved with you all this time.”
It was hard to miss the message: Here is the future of the monarchy, not in Nigeria or Montecito.
Harry had been tipped to take over as patron of the regiment owing to his connection with it before he quit his job as a working member of the royal family in 2020.
Duncan Larcombe, former royal editor of the Sun and author of a biography of Prince Harry, told The Daily Beast earlier Monday: “William’s appointment as the head of Prince Harry’s old regiment is a bitter kick in the teeth for Prince Harry. It really will have got under his skin as [flying Apaches] was one of the few things he actually excelled at. Plus, the sight of William and his father so closely and visibly united today makes a striking parallel to the events of last week, where Charles went to great lengths to avoid being seen with Harry.”
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