Prince Harry broke a “cardinal rule” in the lead up to last week’s secret peace talks between his communications team and King Charles’ press rep, according to a royal expert.
Royal commentator Charlotte Griffiths claims the Duke of Sussex breached a fundamental protocol by publicly discussing private matters concerning his estranged family.
After Harry aired out his family’s dirty laundry on several public platforms — including the bombshell 2021 sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey, his and Meghan Markle’s tell-all Netflix series and his memoir “Spare” — the king is now very cautious when interacting with his youngest son, Griffiths claims.
“I think he would be willing to meet his demands and it is a pretty simple demand, it is ‘if I talk to you, can it not leak out on Oprah Winfrey or any other program?’” Griffiths said of the king’s requirements for any future communication with the exiled royal.
“Harry really wants reconciliation and to be able to freely speak to his father, at the moment he cannot get through to his father, he has to go through his aides,” she added.
“What will definitely happen is some ground rules for communications. What Harry cannot do is repeat what goes on in private conversations,” she noted.
In an interview with the BBC in May, Harry said he would “love a reconciliation” with his cancer-stricken father as the Invictus Games founder alluded to King Charles’ health being far worse than His Majesty has let on.
“I don’t know how much longer my father has,” Harry told the outlet, claiming the king “won’t speak” to him.
According to Griffiths, Harry’s choice of words weren’t received well at Buckingham Palace.
“Harry said ‘we don’t know how much time my father has left’ and that went down extremely badly, that’s why this story is so surprising,” she said. “He broke the cardinal rule which was speculating on the king’s health.”
Prince Harry’s fueling of public speculation about his ailing father was a clear violation of royal protocol, Griffiths added.
While reps for the Sussexes, Meredith Maines and Liam Maguire were spotted chatting to Tobyn Andreae, the monarch’s communications secretary, the meeting notably excluded Prince William and Princess Catherine’s communications team.
According to the royal commentator, the future king, 43, has no interest in mending fences with his estranged brother.
“William is in perfect health and is in no rush to make amends with his brother,” she noted
“I think the king will have let William know this was his approach and there would have been a certain conversation. But I don’t think William will want to get involved,” Griffiths said.
Griffiths added that the king’s health woes might be the reason behind his willingness to reconcile.
“I think this is driven by the king’s health in the respect that the king is very circumspect at the moment and is perhaps in a more forgiving place,” she added.