Palace denies spat of Prince Charles and sonsWilliam, Harry
In a raremove thisweek, Prince Charles’ Clarence House issued a statement, calling the latest report about a “strained” relationship with his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, “pure fiction.”
Over the weekend, The Daily Beast published a feature “Inside the Cold War Between Prince Charles and William and Harry.” The story quoted a palace source as saying that 69-year-old Prince Charles doesn’t get along with William, 36, and Harry, 33, and “hates” his sons publicly “emoting” about the 1997 death of their mother, Princess Diana, and its effect on them.
The source also said Prince Charles rarely sees his sons or their families outside of official business, saying, “They are very different people and they just don’t get on. It’s as simple as that.”
For some reason, this report hit a nerve with either Prince Charles or his minders at Clarence House because the palace issued its “pure fiction” denial about the report in response to an inquiry from the tabloid The Express.
That the palace would comment has royal watch- ers scratching their heads because the royal family and their representatives rarely comment on private matters.
“This is pretty unusual behavior from the palace, and perhaps indicates that they take this sort of claim as a gravely seriousmatter,” wrote Vanity Fair writer Josh Duboff. And yet, when the Daily Beast asked for a response to claims it made in its story, the palace declined to comment. Moreover, Kensington Palace has kept silent throughout the summer about anothermatter: the onslaught of complaints from Meghan Markle’s estranged American father and sister about her and the royal family, alleging she’s miserable or that she snootily cut off contact with her father, Thomas Markle, who has compared the royals to the “cult-like” Church of Scientology.
It may be that Meghan Markle’s arrival in the royal family has somehow changed the dynamics, and prompted Charles to finally assert the narrative of himself as the patriarch of a happy royal dynasty. Indeed, he seems to begetting somehelp inpresenting this narrative from his new daughter-in-law, who asked him to walk her down the aisle when she married Harry on May 19.