Relations between Prince Harry and his father are clearly worse than ever, says Ny Breaking Diary editor Richard Eden.
So Prince Charles could hardly be blamed for not wanting his youngest son to attend his 75th birthday on Tuesday.
The Palace has announced that immediate family will gather in the evening after a day spent promoting the King’s campaign to prevent food waste.
However, it appears neither the Duke nor the Duchess of Sussex will be among the guests.
A family united, with Harry and Meghan on stage for King Charles’ 70th birthday celebrations in 2018
The Sussexes postponed their honeymoon so they could attend Prince Charles’ 70th birthday at Buckingham Palace
“Harry and Meghan’s presence at any family gathering would make it feel more like a funeral than a celebration,” Eden wrote in the latest edition of his Palace Confidential newsletter.
Things were very different in 2018 when, as Eden notes, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle postponed their honeymoon as a sign of respect.
That decision had allowed them to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the then Prince of Wales’s 70th birthday and the charities and patronages to which he had devoted his adult life.
“Their postponement was seen by Meghan as a gesture of gratitude to her new father-in-law, who walked her down the aisle of St George’s Chapel in the absence of her own father, Thomas Markle,” Eden wrote.
‘When King Charles turns 75 next Tuesday, however, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be 5,000 miles away in California, and his milestone birthday has already been the subject of a public row.
This week, a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan made a point of denying a sentence hidden in a Sunday Times story that he had been invited to a party to celebrate his father’s birthday and that he had rejected the invitation had rejected.
Pictured on the balcony after Trooping the Color in 2018. Charles and youngest son Harry had been close
A troubled Harry attends the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The couple had had ‘no contact’ from Buckingham Palace about an invitation, their spokesperson emphasized.
What is clear is that relations between the king and his youngest son are worse than ever.
‘Harry has no need to mend fences with his father, while the king doesn’t want to be with him on his birthday.
“Honestly, who can blame him? Harry and Meghan’s presence at any family gathering would now make it feel more like a funeral than a celebration.”
To read more of Richard’s expert Royal commentary, click here