In the wake of the buzzy meeting between Prince Harry and King Charles, several reports have surfaced from royal insiders claiming to offer insight into the behind-the-scenes details of the meeting—and what it might mean for the long-estranged father and son going forward.
Following reports speculating about the possibility (or lack thereof) of Harry returning to duty as a working royal on a part-time basis, the Daily Mail reported that the Duke of Sussex was "understood to be infuriated at what he sees as a concerted campaign by unnamed Palace officials to torpedo his efforts to strike a rapprochement with his father by giving hostile briefings to newspapers."
"The relationship between the Duke and His Majesty The King is a matter for the two of them and the two of them only," a source close to Harry told the outlet. "The men in grey suits should stay out of it."
The general sentiment of the source's quote was echoed by Harry's spokesperson in an official statement the Duke released in response to reports suggesting that the meeting between him and his father was overly formal.
“Recent reporting of The Duke’s view of the tone of the meeting is categorically false," Harry’s spokesperson said in a statement to People earlier this week. "The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son. Presumably, those same sources have also chosen to disclose that gifts were exchanged.”
Prince Harry is seen at the WellChild Awards on September 8.
According to royal commentator Amanda Platell, Harry's response to the reporting about his meeting Charles is reminiscent, in some ways, of Princess Diana's reaction to her own falling out with the royal family in the 1990s.
"After her Panorama interview with Bashir aired in 1995, she and Charles divorced barely one year later. She was ignominiously stripped of her HRH title, devoid of any Royal status and essentially abandoned as a mere private citizen," Platell wrote in a recent column for the Daily Mail. "To her credit, Diana then gave up playing the victim and forged a new role for herself, championing the removal of land mines in Angola and focusing on her most cherished charities, as well spending time with her beloved boys."
Platell points out that, even as Diana forged a new path for herself after her divorce from Charles, the former Princess of Wales "never did stop manipulating the media or blaming the men in grey suits for her unhappiness." According to Platell, Diana's paranoia about being surrounded by people who were loyal to the Palace and who did not have her best interests at heart played a role in her decision to cancel her official Scotland Yard protection detail prior to her tragic death in a car accident in Paris in 1997.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are pictured at the One805LIVE! 2025 concert on September 20.
In her column, Platell compares Harry’s response to what he views as malicious false reports about his meeting with King Charles to Diana’s fraught relationship with the media during the breakdown of her marriage.
"I can tell you as a former newspaper editor that Diana often called or met up incognito with her favourite journalists to make sure they reported her side of the story," Platell wrote in the column, describing her experiences breaking a story about Diana's relationship with Hasnat Khan after her divorce, which she says came from a tip from Diana's camp.
Platell sees Harry's decision to issue official comments to correct misinformation in recent stories as something he may have "inherited from his mother."