{"id":112422,"date":"2025-05-18T19:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T19:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/112422\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T19:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T19:03:10","slug":"king-charles-and-prince-william-reunite-in-frosty-royal-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/112422\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles and Prince William Reunite in Frosty Royal Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

With so much focus on Prince Harry<\/a> and King Charles<\/a>\u2018 estrangement, it\u2019s easy to forget that Prince William has also had a tricky relationship with his father. <\/p>\n

William and Charles made a rare joint appearance this week at the Order of the Bath service at Westminster Abbey to mark 300th anniversary of the order, and William didn\u2019t seem entirely thrilled to be there. More on that below.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a flattering report in The Sunday Times<\/a> rejected any characterization of Charles relationship with his sons as \u201cdistant.\u201d <\/p>\n

A \u201croyal insider\u201d is cited in the piece as saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think he was emotionally distant. That was one of the great myths and one of the great untruths that Diana propagated, that Charles was cold and not fun with the children, and that she was the fun one.\u201d <\/p>\n

It is truly incredible that some people in the Windsor orbit are still interested in rubbishing Diana\u2019s name, but this renewed effort to rewrite history to portray Charles as a warm and avuncular father should not stand unchallenged.<\/p>\n

\"PrinceTim Graham\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

First off: A young Prince Charles appeared happy to be photographed holding 2-year-old Prince William\u2019s hand as they arrived at St. Mary\u2019s Hospital to meet newborn Prince Harry in September 1984. However, in Harry\u2019s memoir Spare, Charles exclaimed to Princess Diana on the day he was born, \u201cWonderful! Now you\u2019ve given me an heir and a spare\u2014my work is done.\u201d According to Harry, Charles then left to play polo immediately afterward.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Spare, Harry describes Charles as a \u201cloving, but sometimes distant father\u201d who rarely showed physical affection.<\/p>\n

In the 2021 Apple TV+ series The Me You Can\u2019t See, Harry recalled his father saying to both boys at unhappy moments during their childhood: \u201cWell, it was like that for me, so it\u2019s going to be like that for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Harry had a damning verdict on this stiff-upper-lip philosophy: \u201cThat doesn\u2019t make sense. Just because you suffered, that doesn\u2019t mean your kids have to suffer,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

In a candid livestream conversation<\/a> in March 2023 with trauma expert Dr. Gabor Mat\u00e9 (part of the promotion of Spare), Harry discussed the \u201clack of touching\u201d and hugging in the royal household. He noted that his father loved his sons deeply, \u201cbut he just couldn\u2019t show it\u201d in the way they needed, because of how he himself was raised in an emotionally reserved family.<\/p>\n

Moreover, there is little argument among William\u2019s friends that Charles\u2019 emotional remoteness extended to his relationship with William. Charles even reportedly became jealous of the public adulation William and Kate had generated. <\/p>\n

\u201cPa and Camilla didn\u2019t like Willy and Kate drawing attention away from them or their causes,\u201d Harry wrote in Spare, noting that \u201cthey\u2019d openly scolded Willy about it many times.\u201d <\/p>\n

Harry also described how William discovered that Charles (and Queen Camilla<\/a>) had a hand in leaking unflattering stories about William and Kate to the tabloids. Harry writes that his brother was left \u201cseething\u201d and \u201cjustifiably incandescent\u201d upon learning that \u201cPa and Camilla\u2019s people had planted a story or stories about him and Kate, and the kids\u201d in the press.<\/p>\n

A friend of William\u2019s told The Royalist, \u201cThe boys certainly did have a difficult relationship with Charles after their mother died. It was part of what brought them so close together and why their estrangement today is so awfully sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Order of the wet blanket?<\/b><\/p>\n

Prince William\u2019s<\/a> grumpy expression this week as he carried out that joint engagement with his father<\/a> showed, perhaps, why such double headers are vanishingly rare.<\/p>\n

Father and son, clad in magnificent robes of crimson, were the principal celebrants at an anachronistic service celebrating what should by rights be a long-forgotten chivalric order, the Order of the Bath. <\/p>\n

\"PrincePrince William, Prince of Wales attends the service for the Order of The Bath at Westminster Abbey on May 16, 2025 BENJAMIN CREMEL\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The Order originated in the eighth century, and the name is taken from the ritual washing that was undertaken by gentlemen in preparation for the conferment of knighthood.<\/p>\n

William was installed Friday as Great Master, a role he inherited from his father, who was ceremonially handing it on at the service.<\/p>\n

\"PrincePrince William, Prince of Wales attends the service for the Order of The Bath at Westminster Abbey on May 16, 2025 Mark Cuthbert\/UK Press via Getty Images <\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to put your finger on exactly what look was pasted onto William\u2019s face as he made his way through Westminster Cathedral, but suffice to say: He didn\u2019t look especially thrilled by the honor. <\/p>\n

One friend of the prince told the Daily Beast, \u201cThis is exactly the kind of medieval cosplay William thinks is ridiculous. He understands and respects tradition, but this kind of event is hardly telegraphing a monarchy which is modern and relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

William has made no secret of his desire to be rid of many of the bells and whistles of royal pomp, saying in November last year, \u201cI can only describe what I\u2019m trying to do and that\u2019s trying to do it differently and I\u2019m trying to do it for my generation. I\u2019m doing it with maybe a smaller r in the royal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A source close to William, when asked, dismissed suggestions that the Prince of Wales had reservations about the Order of the Bath service. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With so much focus on Prince Harry and King Charles\u2018 estrangement, it\u2019s easy to forget that Prince William…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7721,7719,7718,518,7720,1281,447,532,1412,2607,7710,519,11571,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-112422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-duchess-of-sussex","10":"tag-duke-of-sussex","11":"tag-harry","12":"tag-king-charles-iii","13":"tag-meghan","14":"tag-meghan-markle","15":"tag-prince-harry","16":"tag-prince-william","17":"tag-princess-diana","18":"tag-queen-camilla","19":"tag-royal-families","20":"tag-royal-family","21":"tag-royalist","22":"tag-uk-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114530392926484972","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}