He might have only been on the throne for three years so far but King Charles has already faced some incredibly tough challenges - from his cancer diagnosis in 2024 to stripping Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of his title. His warring sons are also apparently weighing heavily on his mind and are causing him great distress.
In the latest issue of Woman magazine, a source claimed to royal author Duncan Larcombe, "The King sees the breakdown in relations between the Sussexes and the Prince and Princess of Wales as one of the most distressing aspects of his short reign."
Prince Harry himself has also previously revealed how the brothers' estrangement is hugely upsetting to King Charles.
In his memoir, Spare, he claimed the King urged them to put their differences aside in a tense meeting after Prince Philip's funeral, saying, "Please boys, don't make my final years a misery." It's understood that Harry and William haven't seen each other since a family funeral in 2024.
Meanwhile, the last time the Sussexes and Waleses - once nicknamed the Fab Four - were seen all together was at Queen Elizabeth's funeral. Both Harry and William are focusing on their own families and King Charles could perhaps never have imagined his sons' relationship ending up the way it has.
As a father this must be so difficult to handle, especially given how publicly everything has played out, with the Sussexes' Oprah Winfrey interview and Spare's release. In his memoir, Prince Harry reflected on Prince George's birth in 2013 and described the kind of hands-on uncle he wanted to be.
"I looked forward to popping in all the time. Look! It's Uncle Harry! 'Ello, Just thought I'd stop by. Holding a bottle of wine and an armful of kiddie presents. Dropping to the floor and wrestling with little George," he wrote.
Now George, Charlotte and Louis are growing up an ocean away and "popping in" to see them at Forest Lodge just isn't an option. A proper meeting would have to be arranged between the King's two sons and, according to royal author Christopher Andersen, the door is "shut" on a reconciliation from the Prince and Princess of Wales's point of view.
In Kate! The Courage, Grace, and Power of the Woman Who Will Be Queen, he claims that Harry's "reckless remarks" after meeting with King Charles in 2024 were the final straw. The Duke of Sussex spoke about wanting to reconcile with his family as "life is precious" and he didn't "know how much longer [his] father [had]".
"Kate was more disappointed than angry," Andersen writes, adding, "But William, who had already slammed the door shut on his brother over what Harry wrote in Spare, was, in the words of a courtier, "apoplectic" with rage. Now it was time to nail the door shut once and for all".
The author alleges that "for the first time Kate, who had worked harder than anyone to mend the rift between the brothers" promised her husband that "now she, too, was done with Harry".
Maybe knowing that this won't change contributes to how "distressing" King Charles reportedly finds his sons' rift. As a father, wanting to bring them together again is only natural and he might still have hope that tensions will ease one day.
Read Duncan Larcombe's feature in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.
