LONDON – The Duke of Sussex is to fly to London in the coming days to be with his father after the king’s shock cancer diagnosis.
The Office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said Harry had spoken with Charles, who personally called both his sons to share news of the development.
Harry will clear his diary and travel from his home in California, with the move likely to raise concerns about the seriousness of the king’s condition.
The trip will be a solo one, with the Duchess of Sussex staying in the United States with the couple’s two children – Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
“The duke did speak with his father about his diagnosis. He will be travelling to the UK to see His Majesty in the coming days,” the Office of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex said.
The decision will also raise hopes of a reconciliation within the royal family.
Harry has a troubled relationship with his father, although they are still in contact, but his long-running rift with the Prince of Wales remains ongoing.
Charles, according to Harry, pleaded with his sons during a tense meeting after the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral: “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.”
Harry and Meghan wanted a half-in-half-out approach to royal life, but in the end quit as senior working royals amid the Megxit crisis in 2020.
In their primetime Oprah interview in 2021, they went on to accuse an unnamed royal – later claimed to be two royals – of making a racist comment about what skin colour their son Archie would have before he was born.
Harry also said Charles stopped taking his calls when he was trying to discuss stepping down as a working royal.
“My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that,” Harry told Winfrey.
Allegations continued in the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary and Harry’s memoir Spare – both released in the months that followed the late queen’s death and at the start of Charles’s reign.
Harry claimed his brother William physically attacked him and that the king put his own interests above Harry’s, and was jealous of Meghan and the Princess of Wales.
He also said Charles did not hug him when he told him his mother Diana, Princess of Wales had died, and that he believed the king was “never made” for single parenthood, but “to be fair, he tried”.
Harry also attacked the reputation of his stepmother the queen, saying Camilla’s willingness to forge relationships with the British press made her “dangerous” and he criticised her attempts to rehabilitate her “image” at his cost, during a series of interviews to promote his book.
Harry was last seen alongside the royal family at the king’s coronation in May, but the trip was a whirlwind one with the duke leaving immediately after to return to the US on what was Archie’s fourth birthday. – February 6, 2024