Charles III and Harry, both in London, play a game of cat and mouse despite the king’s illness.

One in the green gardens of Buckingham Palace, the other under the imposing dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Charles III and his son Harry appeared miles apart in London on Wednesday, never reunited despite the sovereign’s cancer.

Now there seems to be a gaping rift and it’s hard to overcome the resentment between the California-based Duke of Sussex and the rest of the royal family. But expectations have been revived by successive announcements since the start of the year that cancer had struck the 75-year-old sovereign and Kate, the popular wife of William, the heir to the throne and Harry’s older brother, plunging the monarchy back into a period of turbulence less than two years after the death of Elizabeth II.

Having stepped back from the royal family since 2020, Harry rushed to cross the Atlantic by plane in early February following the announcement of his father’s illness. Then he was given the right of less than an hour for the king to leave for his country residence.

Passing through London to attend a ceremony marking the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games, an international competition for wounded soldiers in which he takes an active part, the prince received an even colder reception this time. On Tuesday, the prince’s spokesman explained that a meeting with his father was “unfortunately not possible due to the very busy schedule” of Charles III: “The Duke (…) hopes to see him in the near future. »

The king, crowned just over a year ago, is being treated for an unspecified cancer discovered in January after benign prostate surgery. However, last week his doctors deemed his progress sufficient for him to resume public activities.

Smiling under the bright sun, the king, wearing a light gray frock coat, kicked off a series of traditional summer “garden parties” in Buckingham Palace gardens on Wednesday, shaking hands and exchanging a few words with guests.

“Hand of Honor”

Harry, who again arrived without Meghan and their two children, arrived late at night with medals pinned to his jacket for the Invictus Games religious service at St Paul’s Cathedral, where his parents Charles and Diana married in 1981. He was then scheduled to visit Nigeria with his wife.

When questioned at St Paul’s Cathedral, a member of the public believed the king’s refusal to see his son was justified: Harry was “simply coming to gain publicity before going to Nigeria to pretend to be a member of the royal family.” For her part, Tracey, who was also present at the event, said she was “saddened” by the situation and felt it was “childish” for the royal family to ignore her. She blames the tabloids, which are generally hostile to Harry: “They’re trying to encourage us to hate him.”

Sun commentator Piers Morgan hailed a “royal hand of honor” from the king to his son, and in the Daily Mail Richard Kay concluded that the illness “appears to have driven the two men further apart”.

This impression was further strengthened when the palace, which had said nothing about Harry’s visit, simultaneously announced the upcoming ceremony to welcome Charles and William. After this, the heir to the throne will regain the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps, the regiment in which Harry served in Afghanistan.

While tenuous contacts remained between Charles and his son, the rift between the two brothers, previously united in mourning after Princess Diana’s brutal death in Paris in 1997, appears complete.

While the two royal couples appeared together in public in the days after Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022, Harry’s allegations in his memoirs dampened any hope of reconciliation. The Duke of Sussex described his eldest child as angry and even cruel. He also attacked Kate and her mother-in-law Camilla. Since then, ties have been severed, and, according to the British press, Harry only learned from the media that his daughter-in-law had cancer.