Here are some photos of King Charles III attending a Sunday church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham. Queen Camilla did not join him. I’m actually surprised he was in Sandringham this past weekend, but it is his new “thing,” to go up to Scotland later in the summer, later than his mother used to, in any case. The big news about Charles these days is that Prince Harry has made it abundantly clear – in an interview within ITV’s Tabloids on Trial documentary – that he will not bring his wife or children to the UK for a visit. Harry told ITV: “They pushed me too far…It’s still dangerous, and all it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff to act on what they have read and whether it’s a knife or acid, whatever it is, and these are things that are of genuine concern for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife back to this country.” Instead of solving this dilemma the same way QEII solved it – by ensuring the Sussexes’ security in the UK – Charles and his allies are throwing loud tantrums about how Harry is keeping his children away from Charles.
King Charles may never reunite with his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet as Prince Harry refuses to bring his family to the UK, sources fear. The Duke of Sussex declared last week that he will not travel to Britain with his wife Meghan due to security fears of a knife or acid attack from a ‘lone actor’. Royal experts told The Mail on Sunday that the statement means the King will become ‘more and more remote’ from the children in an ‘incredibly sad situation’.
‘It would be great to think that at some point soon the King would get to visit the grandchildren that he has seen very little of, but he is 75 and still not in the best of health,’ said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine. ‘A visit to America is unlikely to be a high priority now, given the other demands on his time. It’s an incredibly sad situation that few would have predicted even five years ago.’
Royal author Margaret Holder added: ‘It is very difficult for the monarch to travel as a private person. All kinds of diplomacy would have to be involved to get the King into California to see the children. So if the children can’t come here and the King can’t go there, you are looking at a situation where you’ve got a grandfather, who is undergoing cancer treatment, becoming more and more remote.’
Behind Palace walls there is frustration about suggestions that King Charles ‘could solve’ the rupture by returning Prince Harry’s police protection. But that power lies exclusively with RAVEC, the Home Office committee that oversees royal security.
For a prince living in a country where a former president recently survived an assassination attempt, eyebrows were also raised about the intensity of the Duke’s security fears about the UK.
‘You have to ask yourself: is the UK any less dangerous than the US, with gun crime so prevalent over there?’ said Mr Little.
In February Prince Harry lost his High Court challenge to overturn the ruling that there was nothing unlawful in the decision to downgrade his police protection as a non-working royal. He intends to appeal, but most expect that he will travel alone to Britain for the Invictus Games in Birmingham in 2027.
Harry had reportedly expressed interest in renting Apartments One and Seven at Kensington Palace on UK visits, which are protected by police and are undergoing renovations. However, the MoS understands the flats would not be allocated for his use.
‘The whole thing is a mess,’ said Ms Holder. ‘I would add that it is Prince Harry who increased the risk to himself, his wife and his family by boasting about killing 25 Taliban fighters in his book.
“Behind Palace walls there is frustration about suggestions that King Charles ‘could solve’ the rupture by returning Prince Harry’s police protection. But that power lies exclusively with RAVEC…” As Harry has shown through his many legal actions, royal courtiers are part of RAVEC. Those courtiers were the ones working against Harry’s interests and failing to fully disclose (to the committee) the Sussexes’ security needs and Harry’s offers of reimbursement for security costs. Besides, as I said, QEII solved this problem easily in 2022: she made specific moves to ensure that the Sussexes would have security on their Jubbly visit. Charles could do the same for any Sussex family visit. He just doesn’t want to.
“You have to ask yourself: is the UK any less dangerous than the US, with gun crime so prevalent over there?” – the difference is that the Sussexes’ have private security in the US, and their private security works alongside American law enforcement when the Sussexes make big public outings, like their trip to New York last fall (where the British tabloids loudly complained about the Sussexes’ police protection). Harry has sought a similar arrangement in the UK – that his private security could coordinate with law enforcement, given the level of threats against him and his family. That has been denied to him multiple times, under Ravec’s orders.
And all of the stuff about Charles not being able to visit California… he made zero moves to visit California before he had cancer too. Because, again, Charles doesn’t give a sh-t about seeing his grandchildren or reconciling with Harry.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.