Friends close to Prince Harry have claimed he wants the King to invite him to bring his family to Sandringham this summer – but those close to the monarch have hit back
Prince Harry has been issued with a blunt warning after claims he wants the King to invite him and his family to Sandringham this summer. The Duke of Sussex is due to be in the UK in July for an event connected to the Invictus Games in Birmingham, which is taking place next year.
Friends close to Harry have said that the prince would welcome an invitation to spend time with his father at his Norfolk estate – along with his wife Meghan, and their young children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. The King has only met six-year-old Archie a handful of times and Lilibet, four, once, with Harry saying his current security situation in the UK means it is ‘not safe’ for him to bring his family back to his home country to visit.
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The source close to Harry told the Sunday Times: “If he was invited by the King, he would get a package of security that automatically kicks in. He’d like an invite to Sandringham. Would he go? It would depend who was there. If the King was to say, ‘Come up and spend some time with the family’, he’d love that.”
But now a source close to the King has hit back at the claims saying “low trust and bitter experience” following what they perceive as leaks by Harry’s camp over family relations is hindering a full reconciliation between father and son.
An insider close to the King has now told the Daily Mail: “If Harry truly wishes to see his father, he would do well to encourage his supporters to allow such matters to be discussed privately, since low trust and bitter experience in this regard remains one of the principal barriers to progress.”
Harry and Charles, 77, who is still being treated for cancer, last saw each other on September 10 last year, for a 50-minute meeting over tea at Clarence House while the prince was in the UK for engagements connected with his patronages. It was their first meeting in 19 months.
Before this, it was claimed the pair were not on speaking terms with Harry’s security issue being a sticking point in their relationship, with sources saying it would be ‘inappropriate’ for Charles to intervene in the security row.
The Duke of Sussex was stripped of automatic police protection in Britain when he and wife Meghan, left the country after quitting as working royals.
After a lengthy legal battle, which he lost, it emerged that he wrote to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood shortly after her appointment and submitted a formal request for a risk assessment to the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), which is now being carried out.
During his previous High Court case, Harry argued that his security situation in the UK made it “impossible” for him to safely bring Meghan and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, back to his home country.
A source added about a potential family trip to the UK: “There are lots of scenarios to make it work, but it’s all out of Harry’s hands. No father would want to put their kids at any risk.”
In an interview after the Court of Appeal handed down the judgement last May, he branded the decision on his security a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch up and told the BBC: “For the time being, it’s impossible for me to take my family back to the UK safely. I will continue on with a life of public service. So I will always support the charities and the people that mean so much to me.
“I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point, and the things that they’re going to miss is, well, everything you know. I love my country I always have done, despite what some people in that country have done. So you know? I miss the UK, I miss parts of the UK.
“Of course I do. And I think that’s it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.” At present, Harry must inform the Metropolitan Police a month before travelling to the UK, who look at his security needs on a case-by-case basis. But his lawyers have previously argued this has put his life “at stake”.
