King Charles’ weekly ritual with Prince William is something he reportedly used to also have with his younger “darling boy” before the so-called “rift” with Prince Harry.
Since ascending the throne His Majesty has had increasing demands upon his time and an even more packed schedule. However, it seems King Charles still makes time to continue a heart-warming tradition with Prince William. Whilst it might be challenging to work around so many different commitments and them living a little way apart at Clarence House and Adelaide Cottage respectively, The Telegraph’s associate editor Camilla Tominey has shed King Charles’ weekly ritual of calling his eldest son. According to her, His Majesty and Prince William reportedly speak on the phone every Sunday and apparently used to do so with Prince Harry.
Camilla wrote that senior royals like King Charles take an “old school” approach and claimed that he prefers to communicate via the phone or letters.
“Traditionally, he would always schedule a call with both of his sons on a Sunday,” she alleged, before adding that “while he still converses weekly with William, there is remarkably little contact with his other “darling boy”.
So it seems as though King Charles’ weekly ritual has continued to happen with the Prince of Wales, even if Prince Harry isn’t always there on the scheduled call. It’s not clear how often, if at all, Prince Harry does speak with his father in the same traditional weekly timeframe. However, an insider is said to have echoed Camilla’s suggestion that there’s generally “little contact” between His Majesty and his youngest son.
They supposedly claimed that, “Communications between the King and Prince Harry remain pretty poor” and that the two royals “don’t speak much, if at all.”
The last time Prince Harry was in the UK was in September before travelling to Germany for the Invictus Games. Reports claimed that father and son didn’t reunite during this time and they last reunited in public at King Charles’ coronation. This took place on Prince Archie’s fourth birthday and it’s been suggested that Prince Harry’s departure after the ceremony was sparked by a desire to make it back to his Santa Barbara home to spend some of the day with him.
Camilla expressed her belief that the supposedly reduced contact between King Charles and Prince Harry might not have been helped by the release of Spare and specifically about the depiction of Queen Camilla in it. The royal commentator described King Charles as reacting with “disappointment and dismay” at his youngest son’s description of his stepmother as a “villain” and “dangerous”.
Prince Harry himself has refuted the suggestion that his references to Her Majesty were derogatory in any way, telling ITV’s Tom Bradby that, “There’s no part of any of the things that I’ve said are scathing towards any member of my family, especially not my stepmother.”
But whilst the release of Spare and the events of recent years might reportedly have led to “pretty poor” communications between the King and Prince Harry, it’s lovely to think that King Charles’ weekly ritual with Prince William has at least continued. In 2021, royal expert Emily Andrews claimed in the Mail on Sunday that King Charles and Prince William’s relationship has grown closer and “their bond much stronger” over the past few years.
“Much more aligned and now much more at ease, Charles and William are acutely aware that the future of the monarchy rests on their shoulders,” she declared.
