King Charles III had an exit strategy planned for an impromptu meeting with Prince Harry in February 2024, a source has claimed.
The Duke of Sussex made a mad dash to London from California within 24 hours of his father’s cancer diagnosis being made public.
He flew in alone and went straight to Clarence House where he met with the king briefly before the monarch went back to Sandringham with Queen Camilla.
Royal author Robert Jobson, who has written about the reunion in his new book, The Windsor Legacy: A Royal Dynasty of Secrets, Scandal and Survival, revealed the new details in an interview with The Sun’s Royal Exclusive Show.
He said Harry had “taken it upon himself to come over here to Britain”, but that the King was hesitant to stay too long as he planned to avoid “pretty wary” topics which may have been brought up during their face-to-face discussion, so he came up with an excuse to leave.
“At the time, I think the King was quite tired, he’d just been given the diagnosis, he was on a new regimen of treatment, and he agreed to see his son … But after the initial meeting, he didn’t want it to go on and on. He was tired and wanted to go back to Sandringham,” Jobson claimed.
“So he arranged for somebody to come in and say there was a procedure that the King had to have.
“He didn’t actually have to have a procedure – he had to go on a helicopter to Sandringham, but it meant the meeting was cut down.”
The meeting came after Harry’s exit from royal life continued to haunt the royal family through his memoir Spare and the Netflix docu-series Harry & Meghan.
“I don’t think the King was particularly keen to be discussing money, the problems with his brother, other issues. So it could just be a meeting for father and son to get together … (Charles) just wanted to rest,” Jobson said.
The pair met again in September for about 55 minutes which was the first time they had seen each other face-to-face since the meeting last year.