bitchy | VF: King Charles ‘has always left the door open for Harry to come back to Britain’

Prince Harry’s final event of his British tour/visit was a panel discussion in London in association with The Diana Award on Thursday. Harry met organizers and young recipients of the award, and he basically looked lovely, happy, rich and free. Harry’s spokesperson told People Mag: “He’s obviously loved being back in the U.K., catching up with old friends, colleagues, and just generally being able to support the incredible work of the causes that mean so much to him.” I would imagine that part of Harry enjoyed the fact that his tour was so successful, royalists are now openly begging for him to be “half-in.” He also enjoyed – as did everyone else – the fact that he so thoroughly overshadowed the left-behinds, and that William and Kate were putting on the full clownshow to try to ride his coattails.

Obviously, people are still talking about Harry’s meeting/tea with his father on Wednesday. There are already leaks coming out, and those leaks are not from Team Sussex. Page Six claims that Harry came to tea with his phone full of photos and videos of Archie and Lilibet. I actually thought about this, and while I think Harry probably did show his dad some videos on his phone, a smarter bet would have been for Harry to bring his father a small little photo-album. I could totally see Meghan putting something like that together. Meanwhile, Katie Nicholl at Vanity Fair had an exclusive about the meeting and what it all means:

It is understood that the meeting was “brief but significant,” and that Harry had cleared his diary “for the entire day” in the hope that his father, who is in London for a number of official engagements, would be able to find a window of time for them to see each other.

“The meeting was brief because of the King’s busy diary and Harry having an Invictus engagement in his diary, but it’s very significant that it has happened,” says Charlotte Griffiths, editor at large at The Mail on Sunday. She also revealed that a meeting between Harry and his father was in the cards after their respective communication aides were photographed meeting in London this summer.

“Harry had a meeting in London this morning and then made sure he kept his schedule completely clear so that he could see his father at a moment’s notice,’ according to Griffiths. “It was a last-minute diary plan – it wasn’t in Harry’s diary – but perhaps that’s because he was nervous about leaks. He was prepared to drop everything to see his father and he let that be known to the palace.”

Sources close to King Charles say he is keen for a reconciliation with Harry, and that while he agreed to see his son, any long-term reconciliation is up to the Duke.

“The King has always left the door open for Harry to come back to Britain, Charles genuinely misses him and it pains him that there is a rift, but the ball is in Harry’s court,” says a source who knows the King. “If details of their meeting are leaked, then it will be a short-lived reconciliation. The issue of trust is very important to the King, and has been breached in the past. Harry has to prove he can keep the conversations between them private if he wants to really have a relationship with his father.”

[From Vanity Fair]

I don’t understand? “The King has always left the door open for Harry to come back to Britain… but the ball is in Harry’s court.” The open door, in my opinion, was for Harry to “come back” under pretty narrow circumstances – Harry would only be allowed to return on a permanent basis, full-time, divorced, broke and humbled. Charles will not allow the entire Sussex family to visit regularly with full security and a safe place to stay on a part-time basis. Which isn’t much of an open door, you know? The door is barely ajar.

The Daily Mail’s Becky English also had a fussy exclusive about Harry and Charles’s tea. There was little new information beyond “it was, say insiders, the first tentative step on the road to reconciliation – at least between father and son.” English did what all other royal reporters are doing this week and acting like Harry regularly spills everything or briefs against his family. Nope – Charles, William and Camilla are the near-constant leakers, and watch what comes out about this meeting in the weekend papers.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Getty.