Prince Harry ‘paranoid and in turmoil’ as latest move falls flat

A leading royal expert gives his analysis on the current royal drama as the Duke of Sussex claims leaks are sabotaging a royal reconciliation with his father, King Charles

Prince Harry visits Community Recording Studio in Nottingham

It didn’t take long for Prince Harry and King Charles’s face-to-face reunion to become mired in yet more drama amid talk of royal leaks and sabotage. The father and son shared a private tea last month, the first time they’d been together in more than 18 months, and it was widely regarded a first but huge step towards them getting their troubled relationship back on track.

But after details of the encounter were allegedly leaked by someone with inside knowledge, Harry’s team issued a statement suggesting it was the work of “sources intent on sabotaging” the reunion. The leak included the claim that Harry found the long-awaited reunion “distinctly formal”, and that he’d presented his dad with a framed photograph of himself, Meghan and Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, who the King hasn’t seen in person since summer 2022.

Team Sussex, however, said the claim about the formal tone was “categorically false”, and went on to suggest that underhand tactics were being employed to disrupt the path to royal reconciliation.

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“The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son,” the statement said.

“Presumably, those same sources have also chosen to disclose that gifts were exchanged. While we would have preferred such details to remain private, for the sake of clarity we can confirm that a framed photograph was handed over, however, the image did not contain the duke and duchess.”

A newspaper article which was then picked up around the world also quoted “a source close to the duke” saying the relationship between Harry and his father was “a matter for the two of them”, and “the men in grey suits should stay out of it”.

Royal expert Duncan Larcombe says the fallout from the visit has left Harry in turmoil and feeling increasingly isolated and suspicious.

“The strength of the statement from his team was a sign of just how frustrated Harry’s feeling and how he doesn’t know who he can trust,” he told OK! . “Harry has always struggled with the men in grey suits, and again that’s something borrowed from his mother.

“He is clearly wanting to try to increase his popularity back in the UK and build some bridges but is finding it much more difficult than he anticipated. He might be worrying that it’s a hopeless cause, and the efforts to reconcile with his dad are ruined. It’s difficult for Harry. How do you reconcile with your father when you worry there are other people involved that you can’t trust?”

Unlike the meeting between their top aides earlier this summer – which partly took place on a balcony in full view of a waiting photographer – the King, 76, and Harry, 41, met for just under an hour behind the closely guarded doors of Clarence House.

It was the first time the pair had met in person since Harry flew over from the US to see the King shortly after he announced he was being treated for cancer in early 2024.

While the strongly worded statement from the Sussex camp distanced Harry and his team from the source of the alleged leak, the Sussexes have historically shared many details of private conversations and encounters with their royal relatives.

The disclosures in Spare , their Oprah Winfrey interview and in their first Netflix series reportedly made the palace hesitant about the latest father-and-son meeting, too. Prior to Harry’s visit to the King’s home on 10 September, royal biographer Tom Bower predicted it would be a “meeting full of peril”, because Harry was “no longer trusted” and had “only enemies in the palace”.

However, the Sussexes have also been very vocal about their own mistrust. After losing his High Court appeal against the decision to strip him and his family of state-funded security while in the UK, Harry didn’t hold back about who he blamed.

As well as saying he felt “let down” by the process, he described the legal defeat as a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up”.

In his and Meghan’s 2022 Netflix documentary, he also accused the palace of “institutional gaslighting” claiming they were “happy to lie” to protect his brother, Prince William, but were “never willing to tell the truth to protect” him and Meghan.

A trailer for the same series also included an accusation from former Suits actress Meghan that, “I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves.”

According to Duncan, while Meghan would not intentionally fuel Harry’s negative feelings, her own experiences might contribute towards his suspicious state.

“Meghan has been very outspoken about her feelings on some palace staff and procedures, so there could well be an element of, ‘I told you so,’ from her, in terms of her believing there are people that can’t be trusted.

“But she’ll be supporting Harry completely because he’s her husband, and she will know better than anyone how much a reconciliation would mean to him. But she will also want to protect him.”

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