Royal Reconciliation Alert: Prince Harry Plans to Call Dad
Harry’s birthday call to his dad may be the first step toward reconciliation. But it’s not a royal party unless someone is getting snubbed.
Sorry to spoil season eight of The Crown, but it appears there may be a major breakthrough in the defining royal drama of our time: the feud between King Charles and Diary of a Princely Kid memoirist Prince Harry.
When we checked in on the royal duo last week, it seemed there was no chance of a reconciliation for Charles’s 75th birthday on November 14. Harry clearly had no plans to return to the U.K. from the U.S. for the birthday festivities. And to make matters worse, the pair were publicly squabbling (via publicists and anonymous palace sources) about whether Harry had even been invited.
But on Tuesday, the birthday boy woke up to this bombshell headline from the BBC: “King Charles to get 75th-birthday call from Prince Harry.”
Had the king actually heard from his wayward son as of 2:30 p.m. local time? It does not appear so. But if the BBC’s “well-placed sources” are to be believed, he should remain braced for a “transatlantic phone call” sometime today:
King Charles has celebrated his 75th birthday with a business-as-usual approach and the launch of a project to help people facing food poverty.
But it’s understood that he will be getting a birthday greeting by transatlantic phone call from his younger son, Prince Harry …
Public service, rather than glitzy partying, has been emphasised in the King’s birthday engagements, although it is expected that there will be a private dinner for close family and friends.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, will not be there, but well-placed sources say that the U.S.-based duke will be putting in a birthday phone call to his father.
Assuming the king accepts the call, this could be the first step toward his moving past Harry’s decision to flee his castles and loudly complain about his allegedly villainous stepmother. But it’s not really a royal celebration unless someone is getting snubbed. Various tabloids analyzed royal birthday messages to determine which members of the family are sniping at one another via social media.
This one should come as no surprise: The New York Post deemed Prince William’s three-photo tribute to his dad a “savage snub” because it did not include a photo of his brother, Harry.
But this was a bit of a shock: The royal family’s official social-media account excluded both Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton from a Charles tribute video.
???????? Wishing His Majesty The King a happy 75th birthday. pic.twitter.com/UxvMv8WTAj
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) November 14, 2023
Obviously, Harry wouldn’t be spending Charles’s birthday in sunny California if it weren’t for Markle. But the king referred to Kate as his “beloved daughter-in-law” just two weeks ago! So what did she do? Maybe nothing. But this dark fairy tale needs a villain, and today Harry isn’t it.