The Duke of Sussex has had tea with King Charles at Clarence House, in what was their first meeting for 19 months.
Prince Harry arrived at the residence on Wednesday in a black Range Rover at 5.20pm, and left after about an hour. He later attended an Invictus Games event in London as part of his four-day visit to the UK.
The duke said of the King: “Yes he’s great, thank you,” as he attended the event in London.
Harry has not seen his father in over a year, and said in a BBC interview in May: “I would love a reconciliation with my family.”
He said at the time that his father would not speak to him because of the court battle over his security arrangements, and that he did not know “how much longer my father has”.
The King, who has been receiving cancer treatment since early 2024, travelled down from his Balmoral home where he has been spending his summer break.
His son visited the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London, an institution he has close connections with, earlier on Wednesday, as part of his visit from California, where he lives with his wife Meghan and their two children.
The duke has been carrying out a string of events since Monday. He began his stay by leaving flowers at the final resting place of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II to mark the third anniversary of her death.
Just seven miles down the road from the Queen’s burial site in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, Harry’s estranged brother the Prince of Wales remembered the late Queen at the National Federation of Women’s Institutes in Sunningdale, Berkshire.
Harry’s visit has reignited commentary about the state of his relationship with senior members of the royal family.
He stepped down from the working monarchy in 2020, and has levelled a barrage of accusations at the King, the late Queen, Prince William and the Princess of Wales in his Oprah interview, his Netflix documentary, interviews and his autobiography Spare, since moving to the United States.
While he appears set to reunite with his father, there seems to be no prospect of the duke reuniting with Prince William, who travelled to Cardiff on Wednesday to learn about a pioneering mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day.
In February last year, Harry made a dash across the Atlantic from his home in California to see his father following the King’s cancer diagnosis, in a move that showed that both sides were willing to put their strained relationship on hold for the sake of family relations.
The duke spent approximately 45 minutes with his father before the King flew to his Sandringham country estate to recuperate following his treatment.
Royal watchers will be waiting to see if Harry keeps quiet and refrains from publicly discussing his reunion with the King, and, on the other side, whether any briefings emerge from the palace.
Prince Harry’s communications team, headed by Los Angeles-based Meredith Maines, was pictured in July with Tobyn Andreae, the King’s press representative, on the balcony of a private members’ club in London – a moment described by The Mail on Sunday as “the secret Harry peace summit”.
This was believed to be an initial step towards opening channels of communication between the two households after Prince Harry’s court battle over security came to an end. His court case proved to be an impediment to resolving relations with his father, as it involved Harry criticising the King’s government in the courts. But after the case came to an end, he told the BBC: “It would be nice to have that reconciliation part now. If they don’t want that, that’s entirely up to them.”
The Duke of Sussex appeared to be all smiles as he arrived at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in White City, west London.
He was pictured with former army captain Dr David Henson, who served as Team GB captain for the inaugural Invictus Games, an initiative founded by the duke for wounded veterans.
Dr Henson lost both his legs above the knee after standing on an improvised explosive device in 2011 while clearing a compound in Afghanistan. He went on to gain a PhD in amputee biomechanics at Imperial.
Harry opened the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in 2013. Imperial’s new centre was launched a few years ago on its White City campus.
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