Prince Harry will reportedly wish his father King Charles a happy 75th birthday over the phone, after he and wife Meghan said they were not invited to the monarch’s celebrations in London.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex issued a formal response to media reports suggesting Harry, 39, had turned down an invite to the gathering at Clarence House on Tuesday (14 November). A spokesperson for the couple said there had been “no contact” from Buckingham Palace.
Now, according to a BBC report, Charles’s youngest son will call him from Montecito, California, where Harry and Meghan currently reside with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
The Independent has contacted a representative for the Sussexes for comment.
Since resigning as senior royals in 2020, Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the royal family has grown increasingly strained, with tensions exacerbated following the release of the couple’s tell-all Netflix docuseries, as well as Prince Harry’s explosive memoir Spare.
In his book, Harry recounts a terrible fight between him and his older brother, William, whom he accuses of calling Meghan “rude” and “abrasive”. Elsewhere, he writes that his step-mother, Queen Camilla, converted his old bedroom at Clarence House into a dressing room after he left the London residence.
During an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby at the time of the book’s release, Harry said the royal family had shown “absolutely no willingness to reconcile” with him and Meghan, adding: “I would like to get my father back, I would like to have my brother back.
“They feel as though it’s better to keep us somehow as the villains,” the duke told Bradby.
He also accused the royal family of planting negative stories about him and Meghan to deflect from less favourable coverage of other royals as part of “a war” against his wife.
Multiple requests for comment from Buckingham Palace went unanswered at the time.
Since the late Queen’s death last September, Harry has returned to the UK a handul of times, but a meeting with Charles has never materialised.
The closest they came to spending time together was during Harry’s visit for the WellChild Awards, which fell on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
After Harry’s office wrote to Buckingham Palace with details of his trip, he was reportedly invited to join Charles at Balmoral Castle. However, scheduling conflicts meant the meeting never transpired, and palace officials later informed Harry that he needed to “give notice” if he wished to stay at any royal residences.
Following his UK visit, Harry flew to Dusseldorf, Germany, for the Invictus Games, where he celebrated his 39th birthday with Meghan. The social media accounts for Charles and Camilla, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales, were notably silent during this occasion.
This was also the second year the royal family did not send birthday wishes for Meghan, who turned 42 in August.
King Charles III next to a birthday cake during his 75th birthday party at Highgrove Gardens in Tetbury on the eve of his birthday— (PA)
Other than a private gathering with close friends and family at Clarence House this evening, Charles’s 75th birthday will be a working day for the king. He is scheduled to launch the Coronation Food Project, with Queen Camilla, working to reduce food wastage.
The couple are expected to visit a surplus food distribution centre outside London and meet staff and volunteers to hear about the ways food waste can be used for social good.
The king will also host a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives over the decades as part of the NHS 75 celebrations.
The guests include England’s Chief Nursing Officer, Dame Ruth May, the chief executive of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard, as well as 400 nurses and midwives.
