When Prince Harry returned to the UK earlier this month for the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, royal watchers speculated he might take the opportunity to reunite with his father, King Charles III . However, a spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex quickly shut down the speculations, stating “it, unfortunately, will not be possible” for the two to meet due to the monarch’s ‘full program’. While the palace framed it as a simple scheduling conflict, reports indicate a deeper, more personal fear held Harry back from seeing his father— his longstanding security concerns.

This anxiety traces back to the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana , who was killed in a Paris car crash after being pursued by paparazzi . Harry was just 12 years old at the time. The trauma of that event reportedly left him hypervigilant about his family’s safety. Over the years, he has openly discussed his struggles with ‘post-traumatic stress injury’, even admitting he “lost a lot of memories” of his mother as a ‘defense mechanism’. His protectiveness only intensified after starting his own family with his wife, Meghan Markle .
A tale of missed connections in the royal family! Prince Harry was just 3 miles from King Charles in London, but royal duties kept them apart. #Discernatively #RoyalSchedule #FamilyFirst pic.twitter.com/qSHyWmcPxi
— Discernatively (@discernatively) May 23, 2024
When the Sussexes stepped back as working royals in 2020 and relocated to California, their taxpayer-funded U.K. police protection was revoked. This left Harry ‘devastated’, as he was declined the automatic right to security provisions for any trips back home. He must now give the Metropolitan Police 28 days of notice and have each request for security assessed individually. For his latest visit, The Telegraph reports Harry turned down King Charles’ offer to stay at a royal residence, as it did not come with guaranteed police protection. He chose a hotel instead to “come and go unseen.” While pragmatic, the decision meant sacrificing a potential meet-up with his father, which some see as deepening the rift between them.
So I’m hearing Diana’s son And heir Prince Harry didn’t want to meet or see Camilla when he visited Charles!!!!! I’m sorry but how can’t i love this guy more. I’m so proud of him. Diana’s son. He doesn’t care to suck up to the Rottweiler. He doesn’t give a fuck that she has her… pic.twitter.com/5LswfbyZDg
— Nina (@ShakeLS) February 13, 2024
Interestingly, the Duke is still pursuing legal action against the Home Office for stripping him of police protection in the first place, despite two courts upholding the decision so far. At the crux of the matter is Harry’s core fear that a tragedy like his mother’s could happen again if he returns to British soil without proper security. In an interview last year, he said the lack of protection makes him feel unsafe raising his children in the U.K. Until that changes, any reunions or family healing may remain elusive, as per Newsweek .
Additionally, Harry was furious to hear that his brother, Prince William , was given the new military rank of Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps by Charles, the same day he landed in the UK. His reportedly left him ‘in tears’. Considering that Harry trained as an Army Air Corps member and deployed to Afghanistan alongside them, it is said that he considered it a ‘tremendous insult’, as per InsideNova .