Royals party apart
Guests at rival events paint a telling picture of who’s on Team Harry and who’s on Team Charles ‘Perhaps when the Duke is not about to fly off on a high-profile tour there will be time for father and son to talk quietly’
THE King attended the first Buckingham Palace garden party of the season yesterday, as the Duke of Sussex was less than three miles away at St Paul’s Cathedral.
His Majesty, 75, was joined by his wife, the Queen, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
By contrast, Prince Harry, 39, arrived alone at St Paul’s just before 5pm for a service celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games.
Inside the church, however, he was joined by his uncle, Earl Spencer, and aunt, Lady Fellowes, the brother and sister of Diana, Princess of Wales.
The Duke flew from California especially for the service. It is understood that he had also hoped to see his father while in London, but such a meeting was not possible owing to the King’s busy diary.
Palace sources suggested no formal requests for a meeting had been made.
The King’s appearance at the garden party marked one of his first major outings since he returned to public duties following his cancer diagnosis.
Wearing a grey suit and light blue waistcoat, the monarch stepped out of Buckingham Palace at 4pm and took off his black top hat to observe the national anthem. As it ended, the crowd cheered and the King shook his hat theatrically in acknowledgement and thanks.
The Queen wore a white Fiona Clare dress, a Philip Treacy hat, and a heartshaped diamond brooch that once belonged to the late Queen.
The only working royals missing were the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Prince William had conducted an investiture in Windsor earlier in the day, while his wife is continuing her cancer treatment out of the public eye.
The Duke of Sussex, meanwhile, was joined by members of the Invictus community at St Paul’s, as well as David Sherborne, his barrister, Jamie Lowther-pinkerton, former private secretary to both Prince William and Prince Harry, Akshata Murty, the wife of Rishi Sunak, and Mark Dyer, a former Army officer who has long been a mentor to the Duke.
The service opened with the hymn Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven, before the Dean gave the welcome, hailing the “tremendous achievements” of the sick and injured military personnel from 23 nations who compete in the
Invictus Games. The actor Damian Lewis, who the Duke once joked should play him in The Crown, recited the poem Invictus by William Henley, of whom there is a memorial bust within the crypt of St Paul’s.
The Duke himself read 1 Corinthians 12: 4-1 during the service. A confident performance, it was a far cry from the speech he gave at the opening ceremony of the inaugural Invictus Games in 2014, attended by the then Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall.
In his memoir, Spare, he recalled his hands shaking and the podium looking “like a gallows” before the speech. A decade on, there were no members of the Royal family there to offer support, although an invitation was extended to the King, The Telegraph understands.
At Buckingham Palace, the King stepped out in front of 8,000 guests at his first garden party since his cancer diagnosis. Across town shortly afterwards, the Duke of Sussex took his place at St Paul’s Cathedral for a service celebrating 10 years of the Invictus Games.
Father and son were less than three miles away from one another, but have never seemed further apart.
At the side of the King was a Royal family out in force: the Queen, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester all taking their place for the national anthem.
The Duke of Sussex arrived at his event alone. However, inside St Paul’s Prince Harry had a team of his own in the shape of his maternal family. His uncle and aunt, Earl Spencer and Lady Fellowes, there in support, greeted with emotional hugs.
They were joined by Mark Dyer, a former Army officer often described as a “father figure”, Jamie Lowtherpinkerton, a former private secretary to both Prince William and Prince Harry, and – in a sign of the times – David Sherborne, the Duke’s barrister. Outside, a crowd waited for a Prince Harry walkabout, taking selfies and clasping his hand as he made his way along. The Prince of Wales did not attend either event, spending the morning holding a Windsor Castle investiture before returning home to his own family.
The separate outings show the state of the Royal family as it stands: Team Windsor on duty and an emerging Team Sussex elsewhere.
It was all a long way from scenes a decade ago, when Princes Charles, William and Harry celebrated the first Invictus Games in London with public appearances that saw them laughing and sharing jokes.
At the 1service yesterday Prince Harry read from Corinthians, speaking of “service” and the “common good”.
The dean, the Very Rev Andrew Tremlett, gave a welcome praising the tremendous achievements of the sick and injured military personnel from 23 nations who compete in the games. Actor Damian Lewis, 53, recited the Invictus poem by William Henley.
Prince Harry, who beamed and waved as he entered St Paul’s, later joined Invictus competitors and staff for a reception in the cathedral’s crypt. He spent the rest of the day in meetings with his remaining UK patronages.
At Buckingham Palace, in overlapping events, the King led the Royal family in the annual celebration of community service, his first garden party since his cancer diagnosis.
As he stood on the terrace with the Queen he heard a loud cheer at the end of the national anthem and waved his black top hat to acknowledge the crowd with thanks.
Walking across the lawn, he shook hand after hand and answered the questions about his health repeatedly. One guest told him he was “looking so much better”. The King replied: “I’m not doing badly.”
“How are you feeling, Sir?” one man asked, with the King saying “Not too bad” in response.
The King, wearing sunscreen in the heat, occasionally dabbed his nose with a handkerchief, but was described by an onlooker as seeming in excellent spirits, peppering guests with questions about where they had come from and what they did.
It is his next step towards resuming a regular programme of public activity, even as he continues his cancer treatment. As such, the garden party, just like the Invictus service, should have been celebratory. Instead, the day was overshadowed somewhat by the rumbling question of the King and his younger son meeting. In the end, sources said, they did not.
The Duke had hoped for a meeting with his father, it is said, though recollections seem to vary once again as to whether a formal, timely request was made.
Eventually, as he landed on Tuesday morning, Harry’s spokesman issued a written statement confirming that the King would be too busy to see his younger son. “The Duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon,” he said. A spokesman for the King said nothing.
Those within the palace have privately raised the issue of trust, pointing to a King who has a lot on his plate.
The last time Prince Harry visited, for a 30-minute meeting shortly after the King was diagnosed with cancer, it was swiftly followed by an interview on US breakfast television.
At the time his actual words were received calmly back in Britain, but that he was open to being asked about it on Good Morning America did nothing to restore trust for future visits.
This week the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will arrive in Nigeria for a tour with all the attendant press and publicity that entails. They are there in part to promote Invictus, in a country the Duchess has recently claimed a personal link to. She is, she said in a 2022 podcast, 43 per cent Nigerian according to a genealogy test. The King, who is the head of the
Commonwealth but has not been able to travel overseas in 2024, will be kept informed of their activities.
Perhaps on a different visit to the UK, when the Duke is not about to fly immediately into a high-profile, headline-grabbing Commonwealth tour, there will be time for father and son to talk quietly.
Those who know Prince Harry say he simply wants to see his father.
The explanation of being “too busy”, volunteered by the Sussexes rather than the palace, has inevitably raised eyebrows. The King is busy, there is no doubting that, particularly as he navigates his return to public duty. The palace way of arranging meetings is formal, the lines of communication with the Sussexes limited. But where there’s a will there’s a way.
In February 2024, after his last visit to Britain, when asked whether it was possible that his father’s illness would have a “galvanising and sort of reunifying effect” for his family, Prince Harry said: “I’m sure.”
Three months on, another flying visit under his belt, and that dream is no closer to reality. The gulf between Prince Harry and the King, in communication and expectation, seems no closer to being bridged.
It was not so long ago that another father and son had their differences aired; a young Prince Charles cast in the public imagination as the overly emotional son with a father who did not understand him.
“He’s a romantic and I’m a pragmatist,” Prince Philip once said of his eldest. “That means we do see things differently.” No one would call the current King “unfeeling”, as was said of his own late father. But perhaps, in all of this upset, he has found his inner pragmatist too.