Prince Harry, who last saw his father King Charles 13 months ago, only found out about the monarch’s recent health update when the rest of the world was told, it has been claimed
Prince Harry only discovered that his father King Charles had been admitted to hospital when the news broke on Thursday evening, it has been claimed.
The monarch was temporarily admitted to hospital on Thursday morning after suffering side effects due to his cancer treatment, but he has since been discharged. Charles has been undergoing weekly treatment for the disease since his diagnosis last February and returned full-time to work duties last April.
He was forced to pull out of engagements and completely cancel an away day in Birmingham to meet local communities today. But a palace aide described the King’s hospital visit to The London Clinic in Marylebone in London – where he was previously treated for a prostate condition last January – as “a minor bump in the road” and insisted Charles’ treatment was still “very much headed in the right direction”.
In a brutal blow for his all-but estranged son Harry, the Duke was reportedly not informed about Charles’ hospital stay and side effect struggles before the Palace’s official announcement was released. It comes the same week as Prince Harry finds himself embroiled in a bitter row surrounding his African children’s charity Sentable, which he has sensationally resigned from. The prince is said to be ‘reeling’ from the boardroom battle which has engulfed the charity, which he founded in honour of his late mother Princess Diana.
The Duke last saw his father for a fleeting half an hour visit last February and relations between them remain strained. He flew to England alone to see Charles when his cancer was first announced, but the monarch could only spare mere minutes for his youngest son. Plans for the meeting appeared tense from the off, as conflicting narratives around why the reunion between father and son was so short soon emerged from both camps.
Prince Harry described his heartbreak at leaving the children’s charity he co-founded in 2006 this week in a blistering statement. Royal experts have warned that the Duke cutting ties with the organisation that he poured so much of his heart into will be a crushing blow, with the news of his father’s hospital stay likely only adding more concern on his shoulders. According to reports, Harry was not informed about his father’s hospital admission because the Palace did “did want to cause unnecessary alarm” by contacting the prince, who lives thousands of miles away in California.
Sources claim that Harry’s charity blow, paired with living so far away from his family – many of whom he “barely speaks to” – is leaving him feeling lost and “lonely” in the States. It is alleged that while Meghan pivots into the glittering world of celebrity cooking shows, podcasts and Instagram influencing, Harry is struggling to find a purpose in his new life away from his royal family. His Invictus Games project is still at the heart of his mission, alongside the couple’s charity The Archwell Foundation, but sources note that Harry’s work diary is far less varied than it once was, particularly with his departure from Sentable.
A source quoted as one of Harry’s friends told The Sun: “He misses his family terribly, but no one is speaking to him any more. He just wants to go for a beer with the guys, but his only friends are just Meghan’s friends’ husbands.”
It comes as the publication also claims that the Duke “has barely spoken to his family in years” and that even his cousin Princess Eugenie, who remained his closest royal ally when he moved to the US, has be “cast out” by “paranoid” Harry. It is claimed that the realtionship between Eugenie and Harry “soured” when she was pictured with Piers Morgan, a notorious critic of the Sussexes, last April. Meanwhile, Harry’s relationship has broken down so severely with his brother Prince William that the future King allegedly doesn’t want him at his Coronation when the time comes.
While the Duke still remains in close contact with many pals in the UK, others have reportedly distanced themselves after his attacks on the Royal Family, both in his bombshell memoir spare, on his and Meghan’s Netflix show and in high-profile interviews. “First he was a spare to William, now he’s increasingly looking like a spare to Meghan – and it’s not a great look,” one source said.
It’s not the first time that Harry’s friends have shared their concerns about his new life in America, with one brutally describing it as a ‘gilded existence’. Reports last summer suggested that the prince is at a ‘crossroads’ and living in ‘gilded exile’ in California was ‘not where he wanted to end up’.
The Times quoted a source who has known Harry since he was a teenager, who said: “I know how important it is for him to have a happy, settled family life, but you need to do more than that if you’re him. He has ended up isolated from his family and most of his old mates, in an environment where your friendships are not like the ones you forged as a young man.”
“He used to love a night out in the pub and hanging out in the country with friends. Maybe he has grown into a different person, but do I think he’d really suit the Californian lifestyle? No. Now we’ve seen it all play out, what has that left him with? On the surface, an enviable lifestyle — but for the Harry I know, I can’t imagine that gilded exile in California is where he wanted to end up.”
Meanwhile, another friend said: “Things haven’t turned out how he wanted. I think he misses being over here [in Britain] desperately and wants to be admired more. Anyone who knows him feels he’d rather be top of the pops here with everyone loving him, as they do with William and Kate.”
It comes as a trustee who quit Sentable at the same time as Harry this week, alongside the Duke’s cofounder Prince Seeiso, has said he is worried about the royal’s “emotional wellbeing” and that he’s “torn apart”. Dr Kelello Lerotholi, who has worked with the organisation since it started, revealed he is “worried about the emotional wellbeing of both princes” amid the bitter row.
He told The Times: “I think given their commitment to the welfare of kids, they are torn apart at the thought of looking like they’re abandoning them when they know that they’re not abandoning them.”
