Regular readers of The Royalist will not be surprised by this week’s revelation that the most critical sinew of tension in the British royal family is not between Charles and Harry, but between Charles and William.
That father-son conflict has, behind the scenes, driven many of the dramas of the past few years, though the press has been generally reluctant to spell it out.
Tina Brown pushed it into the open this week, writing on Substack that Charles is “currently less irritated with the prodigal Harry than he is with his elder son and heir. Somehow, William’s parenting dedication always seems couched as a tacit criticism of the king’s own paternal deficiencies. And after five confirmed family vacations in the past seven months, William’s first-week-back diary pulsated with two outings: a father-daughter excursion to a Women’s Rugby World Cup pool match and a stroll through the Natural History Museum’s new gardens. Charles, despite his battle with cancer, has carried out official engagements on 175 days during the past 12 months.”
Tina’s insight backs up what the Daily Beast has been saying for weeks. On Aug. 31, the Beast reported sources describing “a very strained relationship between Charles and his son and heir, William.” Put simply, “William thinks Charles’ monarchy has failed to modernize. He thinks it still radiates pomposity and looks out of touch, thanks to Charles’ love of uniforms and ermine, and he disdains the prioritization of duty over health and well-being. Charles, meanwhile, believes William shirks the most basic element of the job—appearing, in person, across the country, rain or shine—and that his prioritization of family life over duty is inappropriate.”
On Sept. 1, the Daily Beast said that Charles, as a father, “instinctively wants to reconcile with Harry. William, by contrast, believes no member of the family should burnish Harry’s status by meeting him. One of William’s friends told me Charles risks repeating his mistake with Andrew: ‘William was right about Andrew, and he is right about Harry. Charles is weak.’”
It’s now apparent that William’s attempts to freeze Harry out were never just about punishing his brother for his tell-all book Spare, as valuable as that cover story may have been. They were about ensuring Harry could not use the fairy dust of royalty to work his way back into the band of working royals and steal attention from him. After this past week, William’s fears look absolutely justified.
What was striking about Harry’s trip was how easy he made it look. He zipped around the country, laughing and joking with schoolchildren, sword-fighting with balloons, high-fiving young people, flashing glimpses of the “old Harry” Britain once adored. He was upbeat, funny, relaxed—and the U.K. lapped it up. Against William and Kate’s buttoned-up image, Harry’s exuberance was a reminder of how dull the heir and his wife can seem. Their rushed diary-fillers—heritage sites and textile factories—only made Harry shine brighter.
But, make no mistake, it was Harry’s meeting with the king that really mattered. Both sides tried to dampen expectations in advance, but the choreography on the day was unmistakable.
Photographers, tipped off by the palace, were waiting outside Clarence House. Insiders confirm no corners were cut: sandwiches, biscuits, and Harry’s beloved chocolate biscuit cake were all laid out. As one source told me: “It was a proper tea—everything was there.” A private reunion, yes, but also very deliberate theatre. Charles signalled to the world that Harry was back under his roof. Not a balcony return, yet, but the first step toward rehabilitation, and a direct rebuke to William.
The press response has been extraordinary. Even the Mail and the Telegraph ran pieces remarking on Harry’s surprising return to form. Amanda Platell, long one of Harry’s fiercest critics, headlined her column: “William and Kate have become the prince and princess of boring.”
She urged them to learn from Harry—or risk Charles’s wrath. For Harry’s new communications team, Meredith Maines and Liam Maguire, the turnaround will be hailed as a spectacular success.
Harry’s decision to stop complaining about how unfair and brutal his life is is part of the reason, but surely a bigger factor is the king’s endorsement. In a monarchy, nothing matters more. Where Charles leads, the public follows (see: Camilla Parker Bowles). By welcoming Harry back, Charles shifted the dial overnight.
The consequences are seismic. For Charles, reconciliation makes sense against the backdrop of his illness. Frail and tired, he cannot want to face the end of his reign unreconciled with his son, or estranged from his grandchildren. Rumors even surfaced this weekend that Archie and Lilibet could one day attend school in Britain. True or not, the fact that the subject is even up for discussion shows how far the ground has moved.
For William, the shift is catastrophic. He has always seen Harry’s return as a zero-sum game: Harry’s gain is his loss. Now he has been proved right. By re-embracing Harry, Charles has left his heir dangerously exposed. William and Kate are publicly split from the king and forced to confront an agonizing choice. Do they swallow their pride, reconcile with Harry, and risk the humiliation of letting him back on the balcony, half in and half out as he always wanted? Or do they hold the line, knowing they will have to sustain 50 years of cold war once William takes the throne?
Either path is fraught. What is unprecedented is that Britain’s son and heir now finds himself openly at odds with the king—and the knives are out for him as never before.
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