The Duke of Sussex has had a private tea with his father King Charles at Clarence House, where they met face to face for the first time in 19 months.
Pictures emerged of Prince Harry arriving outside Clarence House in a black car at 5.20pm. He left Clarence House at 6.14pm, 54 minutes after arriving. Harry was driven out of the royal residence in a black car and is expected to attend an Invictus Games event in London later this evening as part of his short four-day visit in the UK.
Harry has not seen his father in over a year and said in a BBC interview in May: “I would love a reconciliation with my family.” He said at the time that his father would not speak to him because of his court battle over his security and that he did not know “how much longer my father has”.
The King, who has been receiving cancer treatment since early 2024, is thought to be in London having travelled from his Balmoral home where he has been spending his summer break.
Prince Harry is in London after he visited the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in west London
His son visited the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London, an institution he has close connections with, earlier on Wednesday as part of his visit from California, where he lives with his wife Meghan Markle and their two children.
The duke has been carrying out a string of events since arriving back home on Monday. He began his four-day working stay by leaving flowers at the final resting place of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II to mark the third anniversary of her death.
Just seven miles down the road from the Queen’s burial site in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, Harry’s estranged brother the Prince of Wales remembered the late Queen at the national federation of the Women’s Institute (WI) in Sunningdale, Ascot.
This will be the first time the Prince is meeting his father in 19 months (Getty)
Harry’s visit has reignited commentary about the state of his relationship with senior members of the royal family. He stepped down from the working monarchy in 2020 and has since levelled a barrage of accusations at the King, stepmother the Queen, brother Prince William and sister-in-law the Princess of Wales in his Oprah interview, Netflix documentary, interviews and his autobiography Spare since moving to the United States.
While he appears set to reunite with his father, there seems to be no prospect of the duke reuniting with Prince William, who travelled to Cardiff on Wednesday to learn about a pioneering mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day.
In February last year Harry made a dash across the Atlantic from his Californian home to Britain to see his father following his cancer diagnosis in a move which showed that both sides were willing to put their strained relationship on hold for family. The duke spent approximately 45 minutes with his father before the king flew to his Sandringham country estate to recuperate from his treatment.
King Charles was diagnosed with cancer in early 2024 (AFP/Getty)
Royal watchers will be waiting to see if Harry keeps quiet and refrains from publicly discussing his reunion with the King, and, on the other side, whether any briefings emerge from Palace.
Prince Harry’s communications team, headed by Los Angeles-based Meredith Maines, was pictured with Tobyn Andreae, the king’s press representative on the balcony of a private members’ club in London in July, a moment described by the Mail on Sunday as “the secret Harry peace summit.”
This was believed to be an initial step towards opening channels of communication between the two households after Prince Harry’s court battle over security came to an end. His court case proved itself an impediment to resolving relations with his father as it involved Harry criticising the king’s government in the courts.
But after the case came to an end, he told the BBC: “It would be nice to have that reconciliation part now,.”
“If they don’t want that, that’s entirely up to them.”
Prince Harry is visiting London for four days (Reuters)
The Duke of Sussex appeared to be all smiles as he arrived at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in White City, west London. He was pictured with former Army captain David Henson, who served as Team GB captain for the inaugural Invictus Games, founded by the duke for wounded and sick military and veterans.
Mr Henson lost both his legs above the knee after standing on an improvised explosive device in 2011 while clearing a compound in Afghanistan. He went on to gain a PhD in Amputee Biomechanics at Imperial.
Harry opened the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in 2013, which was the forerunner of Imperial’s new centre which was launched a few years ago on its White City campus.