ɫɫ��

Not long after, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the King and his son had “a private tea” together, spending 50 minutes in each other’s company.

Bar this somewhat surprising confirmation, there hasn’t been (nor will there likely be) any kind of official statement on this reunion, so until either side leaks details via a “close friend” or “insider source,” everyone watching is making an assumptive leap that this is a mutually desired extending of an olive branch rather than the royal equivalent of someone showing up on your doorstep unannounced and inviting themself in for a cup of tea.

After all, the last time Prince Harry saw his father was in February 2024, shortly after the King announced that he had cancer. Harry, who seems to have flown in from California expressly for the occasion, was inside the building with his father for just about 30 minutes before his dad boarded a helicopter to Sandringham, another royal rural bolthole.

More recently, the evidence still suggests that Harry, rather than his father, is the one pushing for a reconciliation following the rift that began with a series of events kicked off when the prince and his wife, Meghan Markle, quit royal duties in 2020. That abdication was exacerbated by a series of interviews the couple gave that painted a less-than-flattering portrait of the royal institution, and then was seemingly cemented with the release of Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” which painted his father as an incompetent, distant parent who prioritized his then-mistress (now wife) over his children when he wasn’t serving them up to lives of the same misery he’d endured in the gilded royal cage.

Harry, for example, is the one who expressed a desire for reconciliation with his father in a BBC interview earlier this year, adding infamously, “I don’t know how much longer my father has.” While there have been some signs of a thawing of diplomatic relations — like Harry and Meghan’s team seen meeting with the King’s team in London over the summer — even leading up to this visit, People was reporting that Charles had not been taking his son’s calls, nor returning any messages.

This visit comes on Harry’s fourth day in the U.K., one of the longest stretches of time he has spent there since quitting life as a working royal. He attended the Wellchild Awards on Monday evening — leading Meghan, back at home in California, to repost a Hello! clip of her husband playfully sword-fighting with one of the children that the charity serves — and earlier today visited a youth charity in Nottingham, which happens to be the place where he and his wife had their first joint engagement. He also announced a “personal donation” of more than $2 million to BBC Children In Need for a project helping young people who have experienced violence.

One thing that has not been on his agenda? Spending time with his older brother, who reports suggest is intransigent when it comes to welcoming Harry back into the fold. (Interestingly, in her newsletter today Tina Brown, former Tatler editor and author of several gossipy books about the royals, says that “ the king is, I am told, currently less irritated with the prodigal Harry than he is with his elder son and heir. Somehow, William’s parenting dedication always seems couched as a tacit criticism of the king’s own paternal deficiencies,” referencing the five documented family vacations the Prince and Princess of Wales have taken in 2025 alone.) Despite being within kilometres of each other on Monday — Harry laying flowers at the Queen Elizabeth’s grave to mark the third anniversary of her death, William joining Kate for a Women’s Institute morning tea to honour the queen’s love for the organization — there is no sense that the two men spoke.

As for what Harry’s meeting with Charles will bring? Only time — and, we hope, a few well-placed loose lips — will tell.