King Charles III and Prince Harry. Shutterstock(2)
Keeping it light. King Charles III reacted with laughter when a fan asked him to bring Prince Harry back to the United Kingdom after his exit from the royal family.
The monarch, 74, was greeting onlookers at the University of East London on Wednesday, February 8, when one attendee yelled, “Bring back Harry, please. Can you bring him back, sir?”
Charles seemingly didn’t hear the first part of the comment and asked, “Who?” When the person replied, “Harry, your son,” the king laughed and kept walking.
The royal family hasn’t publicly commented on the Duke of Sussex, 38, since he released his bombshell memoir, Spare, last month. The Invictus Games founder, who stepped down as a senior working royal in January 2020, didn’t hold back when discussing his relationship with his father or his brother, Prince William.
In one chapter, Harry alleged that a “gung-ho member” of his dad’s team planted stories about him and the Prince of Wales, 40, in 2019. Elsewhere in the book, the Archewell cofounder claimed that Charles once told him there wasn’t “enough money to go around” to support Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle.
“Pa didn’t financially support Willy and me, and our families, out of any largesse,” the former military pilot wrote. “That was his job. That was the whole deal. We agreed to serve the monarch, go wherever we were sent, do whatever we were told, surrender our autonomy, keep our hands and feet inside the gilded cage at all times, and in exchange the keepers of the cage agreed to feed and clothe us.”
King Charles III at the newly renovated museum Leighton House. Justin Tallis/AP/Shutterstock
Observers have wondered whether the fallout means Harry will skip his father’s coronation, which is scheduled for May 6. (Charles became king immediately upon Queen Elizabeth II‘s death in September 2022, but he and Queen Consort Camilla will be officially crowned at the coronation.) The BetterUp CIO, for his part, didn’t give a definitive answer when asked about the event in January.
“There’s a lot that can happen between now and then,” he told ITV when asked whether he’d attend the event if he’s invited. “But, you know, the door is always open. The ball is in their court. There’s a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it.”
Earlier this month, royal expert Angela Levin exclusively told Us Weekly that she thinks Charles isn’t ready to give up on his son, despite the tension. “King Charles is a monarch, but he’s also a father,” the Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort author explained on Tuesday, February 7. “He loves Harry. He might not like what he’s doing, but he loves him and there’s a weakness there for him. He doesn’t want to lose him as a son.”