The world is focused on the royal family now more than ever, especially when it
comes to Prince Harry's relationships with his relatives. If you're keeping up with the drama,
here's what you need to know about Prince Charles and Prince Harry's father and son bond.
Incredibly, it appears that Prince Harry's complicated relationship with his father
may have begun the moment he was born. In Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words,
the Princess of Wales told the biographer that she and Prince Charles were extremely
close before the birth of her second child in 1984. But Diana grew nervous as her due
date approached because she knew that Harry was a boy, and Prince Charles reportedly wanted a
daughter. Diana claimed that her husband's first comment after Harry's birth was,
"Oh God, it's a boy [...] and he's even got red hair."
Charles' alleged remark, along with the knowledge that he was seeing Camilla Parker Bowles again,
reportedly ended the couple's recently renewed
affection for one another. Diana lamented to Morton,
"Then suddenly as Harry was born it just went bang, our marriage,
the whole thing went down the drain."
Apparently Prince Charles still wasn't over the whole gender issue at Harry's christening.
Diana alleged that Charles said to her mother,
"I'm so disappointed — I thought it would be a girl."
Let's just hope that the future king learned his lesson after Diana's
mother rebuked Charles for not being grateful that he had a healthy son.
Since their mother's tragic death in 1997, both Prince William and Prince Harry have
spoken publicly about the late Princess of Wales. In documentaries and interviews,
the princes have praised their adoring mother. On the other hand,
Prince Charles is rarely mentioned by his sons. Biographer Penny Junor told the Daily Beast,
"Charles has always been quite a remote figure, he has always been consumed by work [...] He made
sure they were well looked after, but they are not as close as they might have been."
Harry himself admitted in the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother:
Her Life and Legacy that he didn't get to spend enough time with his father as a child. The
prince didn't mention his father's work, but instead blamed Charles and Diana's separation.
Describing the travel involved with bouncing between parents, Harry diplomatically said,
"We never saw our mother enough or we never saw our father enough."
One year earlier, in 2016, the Duke of Sussex joked about not seeing his
father often in the documentary When Ant and Dec Met the Prince:
40 Years of the Prince's Trust. One of the hosts told the brothers in the film,
"We've spent a lot of time with your dad over the last year."
Turning to William, Harry muttered,
"More time than us."
While he doesn't discuss the Duke of Cornwall often, Prince Harry has
occasionally praised his father in the media. In the documentary When Ant and Dec Met the Prince,
Harry said some kind words about his dear old dad, when he told the interviewers,
"The advice that he can give us based on the contacts he's made over the years is
incredible. You can actually ring him up and say,
'I'm in a bit of a pickle here,' or even better you can offload stuff."
In a different, very somber documentary, Harry discussed how the death of Princess
Diana impacted the family. Diana, 7 Days premiered on the BBC in 2017,
and at one point in the film, the prince revealed,
"[Our dad] was there for us — he was the one out of two left,
and he tried to do his best and to make sure that we were protected and
looked after. But he was going through the same grieving process as well."
Before things fell apart between Harry, Meghan Markle, and the rest of the royal family,
the Duke of Sussex gave a heartfelt speech at his father's 70th Birthday Celebration in 2018. Harry
praised Prince Charles' extensive charity and humanitarian work, and told his father,
"It is your selfless drive to affect change [...] which
William and I draw inspiration from every day."
In 2002, a then-17-year-old Prince Harry made tabloid headlines
by allegedly admitting to underage drinking and cannabis use.
St. James' Palace even acknowledged that Prince Harry's behavior was a, quote,
"serious matter" and police inquiries were made, although Harry was never charged with
a crime. While teenage experimentation is often par for the course, the prince's actions brought
embarrassment to the royal family. Soon after the scandalous headlines broke, The Guardian reported,
"Prince Harry was taken to a drugs rehabilitation clinic for a day after
Prince Charles discovered he had been regularly smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol [...] Prince
Charles [...] arranged a visit to Featherstone Lodge, a detox centre for heroin addicts."
Many in the public and media assumed that the rehab visit was Prince Charles' tough
love approach in an attempt to help Harry mend his destructive ways. But
royal biographer Penny Junor asserted in her 2017 biography The Duchess that
the trip was a calculated PR move. Junor also claimed in the book,
"Charles had no idea what either of his sons got up to,
and Harry bitterly resented being made to look bad so his father could look good."
Despite Prince Harry's rebellious side and Prince Charles' allegedly "remote" parenting,
the father and son pair has had plenty of heartwarming moments throughout the years.
A quick Google search turns up hundreds of pictures of Harry and Charles laughing together.
And for the critics who accuse Charles of being a distant parent,
photographers have also captured the future king tenderly embracing his sons on multiple occasions.
The Prince of Wales has also proven to have a typical sense of "dad humor." In a 2008 interview,
the interviewers asked what it was like for the father and son to compete against one
another in polo. Charles revealed that he was once knocked unconscious during a game,
and Prince Harry didn't seem to realize that any real damage may have occurred
to his father. According to Charles, Harry said,
"'Oh, Papa's just snoring,' and there I was busily swallowing my tongue."
In another super-relatable moment, Harry couldn't resist some lighthearted teasing directed at his
dad in 2018. Harry and wife Meghan Markle visited Dublin on official royal business,
and the prince was asked to give a speech at a garden party. He told the crowd,
"As some of you may know, [the prime minister of Ireland] showed my father around his home city of
Cork just a couple of weeks ago [...] very nice to know [Charles] didn't bore you senseless."
In 2017 Prince Harry gave an interview to Newsweek and opened up about Princess Diana's death,
the future of the monarchy, and his passion for helping others. In the interview the Duke of
Sussex came across as both jovial and empathetic. But in regards to Prince Charles, some read
between the lines that all was definitely not well. Harry discussed how his mother's tragic
death at the age of 36 caused him to emotionally shut down. Regarding the funeral he lamented,
"My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of
people watching me while millions more did on television. I don't think any child should be
asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don't think it would happen today."
Later in the Newsweek article, the interviewer notes that, when asked about his family,
Prince Harry gushed about the queen and his mother. He went on
to say a few words about his brother Prince William and Kate Middleton,
but barely mentioned Prince Charles or the Duchess of Cornwall. Newsweek added,
"The world now knows how unhappy that relationship made his mother, and her sons."
We may never know what happened behind closed doors, but before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex
fell out with the royal family, it was widely reported that Prince Charles adored Meghan Markle.
When Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, withdrew his plans to attend the royal wedding, Charles agreed
to act as a surrogate and partially walked Meghan down the aisle. Harry praised his father in the
BBC's November 2018 documentary, Prince, Son, and Heir: Charles at 70, saying that Charles told him,
"I'll do whatever Meghan needs, and I'm here to support you."
Also in 2018, Vanity Fair reported that Charles, Harry, and Meghan became very close after
a holiday in Scotland. An anonymous source claimed
that the Prince of Wales thoroughly enjoyed Meghan's company, adding,
"Charles has been very supportive of Meghan and everything she is
going through with her own father. He's got a real soft spot for her
and thinks she's the best thing to have happened to Harry."
When the book Finding Freedom was released in 2020,
royal biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand spoke with friends and sources close
to Prince Charles and the Sussexes. One of Prince Charles' friends told the authors,
"[Charles has] taken a real shine to Meghan. She's a sassy, confident
beautiful American. He likes very strong, confident women.
She's bright and she's self-aware, and I can see why they've struck up a very quick friendship."
When Prince Harry revealed to Oprah Winfrey that the royal family had cut him off financially,
people wondered exactly what that meant. The Sussex Royal website explains that
when the Duke and Duchess were still working members of the royal family,
5% of their income came from the Sovereign Grant and the other 95% was provided by Prince Charles.
Because Harry and Meghan are no longer working members of the royal family,
they are not eligible for the Sovereign Grant, which suggests that,
according to Harry's comment, Prince Charles had decided to stop giving the couple money.
Despite that loss of income, Harry told Oprah that he still had money
from Princess Diana's will. A source told People in 2021 that the issue of
money always complicated Charles and Harry's relationship, saying,
"It's not a straightforward father-son relationship. He is their father and
their boss, and they are beholden to him to fund their offices and lives."
If Harry was looking for sympathy over his money woes,
the public refused to give him any. The Express wrote,
"Royal commentators have pointed out that ordinary people may struggle to
have sympathy with a 36-year-old man who is a multi-millionaire in
his own right complaining about being cut off financially by his family."
The tabloid also pointed out that blaming Charles for cutting off funds
seems hypocritical when the couple declared that they wanted to be financially independent.
After his financial difficulties confession,
Prince Harry wasn't done divulging personal family details on live television. The Duke of
Sussex told Oprah that he tried to have multiple conversations with both the queen and his father
before Charles stopped answering his phone calls. When Oprah asked why, Harry replied,
"By that point I took matters into my own hands."
While Harry revealed that they two are speaking again, he admitted,
"There's a lot to work through there. I feel really let down."
The prince continued,
"He's been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. And Archie's his grandson."
Despite his stinging words, the Duke of Sussex added,
"At the same time, of course I will always love him [...] And I will continue to make
it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship."
Of course the future King of England did not directly respond to Harry and
Meghan's interview. But royal editor Robert Jobson wrote in Hello! Magazine,
"I think the Prince of Wales has also taken the lead on how the palace has responded [...] The
queen is 94 [...] so he will be trying to placate and learn lessons from this
so something can be worked out to everyone’s satisfaction.”
Buckingham Palace's statement regarding Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview said,
"The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how
challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised,
particularly that of race, are concerning [...] While some recollections may vary,
they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately."
After Buckingham Palace's official response, journalist Gayle King gave the world an update
on Harry and Charles' current status, and revealed on CBS This Morning,
"Harry has talked to his brother, and he has talked to his father,
too. The word I was given was those conversations were not productive
but they are glad they have at least started a conversation."
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