How many times will royal reporters and royal biographers talk around the fact that King Charles’ relationship with his heir is strained, if not completely dysfunctional? What’s even crazier is when they admit that Prince William is basically upset that Charles is NOT near death, that his cancer treatments have been working and he’s doing a lot better. But even before Charles’ 2024 cancer diagnosis, Charles and William didn’t get along whatsoever. I would argue that they’re too similar in temperament, just as I would argue that Charles absolutely got the heir he deserves.
It’s not just Prince Harry who has a fractious relationship with his family — King Charles and Prince William don’t have a particularly warm relationship either, sources tell Page Six.
“The problem with William is that he thinks he knows best,” royal biographer Hugo Vickers told Page Six.
“There have been differences of opinion and a few problems a couple of years back,” added royal writer Robert Jobson. “William has to rise above it all if he’s going to be king, and both he and Charles know they have to work together. There’s a lot of decisions that Charles will make that will affect William.”
Despite what has been called “eternal battles,” sources say the king, 77, and his heir, 44, are perfectly civil to each other as William prepares for the future.
“They meet regularly and they converse, there is no major problem,” Jobson said.
In the new biography, “William and Catherine: The Monarchy’s New Era: The Inside Story,” royal expert Russell Myers details how William and Charles’s relationship has evolved.
“Charles and William had been united throughout the Sussexes’ departure [from the UK and the royal family] and the scandal involving Prince Andrew and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which has brought them ever closer together in recent years,” Myers writes.
Meanwhile, a source told Myers, “While [The King] loves both his sons equally, his relationship with the Prince of Wales is something that has strengthened over the period of difficulty experienced by the family as external battles have occurred.”
As heir to the throne, William is on a “higher plane,” Jobson added.
In the wake of Harry’s trip to the UK earlier this month, when he finally brought his children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, to see the king for the first time in four years, Jobson told Page Six, “William understands he and his brother have different agendas and they have a different relationship with Charles.”
And while Charles may have been willing to see Prince Harry recently — even after his son has raged about royal life in his memoir “Spare” and the Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan” — sources predict the brothers will remain estranged.
“I’m sure [William] is not in any way going to reconcile with Harry, he’s made his position pretty clear…they have different paths,” Jobson said.
As for William’s alleged view that he knows best, Vickers said, it could be the very thing that turns him into a strong monarch: “We should give him a chance. He might make a super king.”
It’s taken these people the better part of a year to come up with “William understands he and his brother have different agendas and they have a different relationship with Charles.” O RLY? Because after Harry and Charles met last September, William had something akin to a nervous breakdown because daddy was supposed to hate Harry too!! William-loyalists even admit that the Harry situation is a proxy war for the larger fissures within Charles and William’s relationship. Here’s the thing though – I don’t even believe that Charles gives a crap about William’s rage-tantrums anymore. Charles has his own agenda, and he’s manipulating both of his sons for his own purposes.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
