This weekend was full of royalists screaming into the echo chamber they made for themselves, mostly about the Times report about Prince Harry offering to “temporarily return” to royal work while his father has cancer. That story came, in my opinion, straight from Buckingham Palace. I’ve developed a theory that Queen Camilla has her own side operation and she ends up briefing all kinds of bullsh-t, mostly about her stepsons. Well, I also believe this new Sun exclusive came from Camilla’s operation, because she’s still pissed that her husband met with Prince Harry one-on-one two weeks ago and she was kicked out of the room. Now she wants people to know that Harry was “blocked” from meeting his father in Sandringham.
Prince Harry was stopped from joining the King at Sandringham after flying to the UK because Palace aides feared “they’d never get rid of him”. The Duke of Sussex was told to get a hotel instead of staying with the cancer-stricken King. The Sun on Sunday can reveal Harry, 39, planned for a long heart-to-heart with his dad. He had even hoped to join the King — recuperating from cancer treatment — for a few days at Sandringham.
But instead he was instructed to visit Clarence House, his dad’s London home, for a short managed face-to-face meeting — and then told to get himself a hotel for the night.
It was understood Buckingham Palace accepted his quick visit to Britain as a kind “gesture” and “cause for optimism”. But it was not believed to have led to a major thawing in relations. When Charles rang his younger son to reveal his shock cancer diagnosis, Harry “took it upon himself” to fly to London. But after landing at Heathrow on February 6 he was told not to set off for Norfolk, where the King, 75, was planning to spend time with Queen Camilla, 76.
As Charles delayed his departure for Sandringham, Harry was directed to go to Clarence House. He spent 45 minutes inside, but only around half an hour with his father. An insider revealed: “Harry came over to see his father, expecting to go to Sandringham. But instead he was asked to be at Clarence House and was restricted to 30 minutes. The fear was that if he went to Sandringham they would never get rid of him.”
Just six minutes after Harry left the meeting with his father, the King and Queen made their way by Bentley to a helicopter in the Buckingham Palace gardens before flying to Sandringham. Harry later stayed in a hotel in London, although it has not been reported which one.
Someone suggested that Harry’s flight was delayed because of the huge storms hitting California in that 48-period when Harry was trying to get to England. Which I believe – I would guess that the original plan was to have a longer visit between father and son, but Harry arrived too late and Charles was probably pretty tired from his first cancer treatment that day. The fact that Harry had a police escort from Heathrow tells you all you need to know about Charles agreeing to Harry’s visit and how much Charles wanted to see his younger son. This whole “Harry was PUNISHED by not being allowed to go to Sandringham” thing is so dumb – my guess is that Harry asked “where should I meet you” and Charles thought Clarence House would be better and so that’s what happened. It also sounds like everybody Over There is still salty about the fact that Harry breezed into town, saw his dad, met with his lawyer, dipped in 25 hours and made it back to America in time to present an award at the NFL Honors.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Getty.