The King remains open to meeting Prince Harry this week but the prospects of real reconciliation inside the Royal Family have suffered a setback after a breakdown of trust on both sides.
What should have been the perfect opportunity for bridge-building and a chance for the monarch – the great convenor feted for bringing people together to resolve problems – to see his grandchildren for the first time in four years, has dissolved into mutual recriminations and a briefing war reminiscent of the actions of the rival camps when Charles and Diana split in the 1990s.
Harry had hoped that his return to Britain for a series of events to support the Invictus Games would be a watershed. He hoped it would allow him to bring Meghan and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, to see their family and begin repairing the rift that tore the Windsors apart when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit in 2020.
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But his plans have been thwarted at every turn, according to those close to him, culminating in claims that the offer to let Harry stay at Buckingham Palace for one night this week had been withdrawn.
