King Charles may never reconnect with his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet since Prince Harry refuses to bring his family to the UK, sources fear.
The Duke of Sussex declared last week that he will not travel to Britain with his wife Meghan due to security fears of a knife or acid attack from a ‘lone actor’.
Royal experts told The Mail on Sunday that the statement means the King will become ‘more and more remote’ from the children in an ‘incredibly sad situation’.
King Charles last saw Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, in June 2022 when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex returned for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Due to his legal dispute with the Government over the loss of his taxpayer-funded protection, Prince Harry, 39, has returned to the UK multiple times since then without his wife or kids.
In keeping with his ongoing assault on British journalism, he implied that an assailant might be motivated by anything they came across in a tabloid.
In an ITV interview, the Duke of Sussex appeared to confirm that he would travel solo in future: ‘All it takes is for one lone actor who reads this stuff to act on what they’ve read. And whether it’s a knife or acid, these are things that are genuine concerns for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife back to this country.’
When asked if the recent cancer diagnoses of both his father and sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales, had made him reconsider his legal battles against the press, the Prince tersely replied that they were ‘two completely different things’.
Harry claimed his fight against the press has been ‘a central piece’ in the breakdown of his relationship with his family, stating: ‘For me, the mission continues, but it has caused… part of a rift.’
But that divide is about to widen into a chasm in the eyes of King Charles and the Sussex children.
‘It would be great to think that at some point soon the King would get to visit the grandchildren that he has seen very little of, but he is 75 and still not in the best of health,’ said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine.
‘A visit to America is unlikely to be a high priority now, given the other demands on his time.
‘It’s an incredibly sad situation that few would have predicted even five years ago.’
Royal author Margaret Holder added: ‘It is very difficult for the monarch to travel as a private person. All kinds of diplomacy would have to be involved to get the King into California to see the children.
‘So if the children can’t come here and the King can’t go there, you are looking at a situation where you’ve got a grandfather, who is undergoing cancer treatment, becoming more and more remote.’
Behind Palace walls, there is frustration about suggestions that King Charles ‘could solve’ the rupture by returning Prince Harry’s police protection. But that power lies exclusively with RAVEC, the Home Office committee that oversees royal security.
Many families have families who live abroad and for some, they don’t get to see their grandchildren at all. The only means of communication they have is via video chat or phone call, but the King has cancer, so it wouldn’t kill the Home Office to allow security for Harry and his family just this once.
On the other hand, Harry chose to take his family overseas, that was his choice, so shouldn’t he pay for his own security? Perhaps he should! I mean, how do other celebrities cope? They don’t have state-funded protection, they hire and pay for their own.
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