The Duke of Sussex has been reunited with the King, for the first time in 19 months.
Prince Harry and his father spent 54 minutes together over a “private tea” at Clarence House, the monarch’s London home, on Wednesday evening.
The meeting came on the eve of Prince Harry’s return to California during a four-day visit to the UK designed around his charity commitments.
After their tea, the Duke attended an Invictus Games event in the capital where he told a well-wisher asking after the King: “Yes he’s great, thank you.”
The reunion, albeit brief, will be seen as a major turning point in the pair’s relationship.
The Duke has made no secret of his desire to make peace with the King but his various legal battles and propensity to express his feelings on television have not helped his cause.
In May, he gave a lengthy interview in which he admitted he had no idea how long the King had left to live and expressed a clear desire for a rapprochement, saying, “I would love a reconciliation with my family.”
Credit: X/@chrisshipitv
The Duke’s visit this week has coincided with a flurry of public engagements by his brother, the Prince of Wales, but the pair – who remain estranged – have not met.
The King, meanwhile, has no public engagements this week but flew down to London from Balmoral, where he has been spending his summer break, for his weekly cancer treatment.
The first sign of a potential reunion came when the King was spotted boarding a London plane in Aberdeen at around 2pm.
He arrived at Clarence House shortly before 4pm and his son, dressed in a suit and tie, was driven through the gates to a barrage of camera flashes 80 minutes later at 5.20pm.
At 6.13pm, Prince Harry was whisked back out of the gates of Clarence House and headed straight to a reception for Invictus Games supporters in the City of London.
He was due to arrive at 6.45pm but got stuck in traffic and eventually arrived at 7.24pm – the second time this week he has been late thanks to the knock-on effects of the ongoing Tube strike.
The Duke no longer benefits from blue-light police escorts which would be able to cut through the heavy central London traffic.
He was delayed by 45 minutes arriving at an event in Nottingham on Tuesday, where he enjoyed a lively visit at the Community Radio Station and announced a £1.1m personal donation to Children in Need to tackle youth violence and knife crime in the city.
King Charles was spotted being driven into Clarence House 90 minutes before his son arrived – Eddie Mullholland
Before meeting the King on Wednesday, he spent two hours at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies, where he revealed he had donated $500,000 to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine.
But he also made time to make a private visit to Elizabeth II’s grave in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. He was given special permission from the palace to do so after arriving in London on Monday.
In Windsor, he was only eight miles from his brother William, who was with the Princess of Wales at the Women’s Institute in Sunningdale, but no reunion was arranged.
The Duke, who is due to fly home to the US on Thursday, last saw his father in person in February 2024, when he made a mercy dash to the UK following the King’s cancer diagnosis.
The pair spent just 30 minutes together before the King flew up to Sandringham with the Queen and Harry made the 5,000-mile trip back to California.
When he next returned to London three months later, his hopes of seeing his father again were dashed when apparent efforts to make contact went unheeded.
Harry looked deep in thought as he was whisked away to a charity engagement – julian.simmonds
Sources close to the Duke claimed his phone calls had gone unanswered while palace sources insisted that no formal requests for a meeting had been made.
Chastised, a spokesperson for the Duke issued a statement stating that a meeting between father and son would not be possible “due to His Majesty’s full programme”.
“The Duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon,” they said.
Prince Harry returned again, just briefly, last September for the WellChild Awards, but the King was in Scotland and he did not stay long.
His most recent visit, in April, was to attend a two-day Court of Appeal hearing over his security, which he eventually lost, drawing a line under the spectacle.
The lengthy legal row caused huge concern at Buckingham Palace, not least as the Duke made clear he believed the King could intervene on his behalf to help broker a suitable arrangement.
The King was said to have been so worried about being dragged into the case that he was hesitant to engage with his younger son in case his words were repeated in public, placing him in legal jeopardy.
Harry has since insisted – and continues to maintain – that it is not safe to bring his wife, Meghan, or his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, back to the UK.
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