I cannot get over how badly King Charles has handled everything in the past week, from refusing to meet Prince Harry, to becoming incandescent with rage that Harry released a statement about not meeting Charles, to these increasingly bizarre, contradictory royalist-media pieces about how Harry is to blame for everything and Charles had every right to snub Harry, but Charles is NOT snubbing Harry and it’s all Harry’s fault! Another thing torturing Charles these days is the fact that the Spencers came out to support Harry at the Invictus service – the Spencers’ presence reinforced several things all at once: that Harry is Diana’s son, that Harry has the Spencer rizz, that Harry still has a great relationship with Diana’s family, that Charles is a dogsh-t father, and that Harry is actually still well-liked in his birth country. So, obviously, Team Dogsh-t Father had to run back to Richard Kay at the Daily Mail for this: “The fact is Charles COULD have seen Harry, but it’s often upsetting for him. He won’t get well if he’s overwrought. A close friend of the King tells RICHARD KAY the real story behind the meeting that never was.” When I tell you that Charles has completely lost the plot…

Harry is the New Diana: Today, Harry is the Diana figure — or at least that is how he wishes to be seen. The outsider, nobly fighting the same cruel and insensitive institution that his late mother railed against…The closer you look, the more striking the parallels are. In the face of the hostility she often had at home, where she was constantly accused of upstaging her royal in-laws, Diana found consolation on official visits overseas. This weekend Harry and Meghan are attempting to shore up their own damaged reputations with a faux-royal tour of Nigeria.

Ah, yes, Diana “stayed” in England: By stressing the ‘unofficial’ nature of this 72-hour mini royal tour, Harry will be hoping to sidestep any debate about how he is classified on the international scene. No red carpet, no problem. There will be, however, some comparisons with his mother that Harry won’t like. For Diana chose to stay and fight for her future inside the Royal Family and not flee.

Is Harry being embraced by the Spencers a deliberate provocation? So what should we make of the presence of Harry’s aunt and uncle at his side in St Paul’s and whom he greeted with affectionate hugs? Three of his Spencer first cousins were at the service, too. On the surface, their attendance would seem significant. But it also would be a mistake to assume that it was somehow deliberately provocative. As the wife of Lord Fellowes, the late Queen’s long-time private secretary, Lady Jane spent years supporting both her husband’s royal masters and her sister. It didn’t always work and there were times when the two women were estranged.But ever since Diana’s death, both of her sisters have been close to Harry. But being there for Harry this week does not imply any less support for Prince William — who, after all, has as much claim on his mother’s legacy as his brother.

Harry’s visit in February, right after Charles’s cancer diagnosis: ‘The trouble is it did nothing to restore trust,’ says a close friend. ‘And Harry is not trusted.’ Charles, only just back to work and still undergoing cancer treatment, does have a lot on his plate. As the King’s friend said: ‘The fact is Charles could have seen Harry — there are plenty of odd hours in the day when he’s doing paperwork. But seeing Harry is often upsetting for him. There is so much unfinished business from the past and he won’t get well if he is overwrought. He has never found fatherhood easy. The nearest he gets to a relaxed and unstressed relationship of the sort he ought to have with both his sons is with his daughter-in-law Catherine, the daughter he never had.’

The courtiers are puzzled by Harry thinking his father should act like a father: ‘Harry seems to think he can drop in on his father when it suits him when really it should be the other way round,’ says a courtier who has known Harry since he was a boy. ‘The message couldn’t have been clearer. He may have flown in from the other side of the world but there was still no welcome mat. It speaks volumes about the chasm that has opened up. On the King’s part, there was also an element of calculation. In a way, not seeing him was as risky as seeing him because he knew it could be perceived as a snub.’

The courtiers don’t understand Harry’s motives: One question troubling royal advisers is they do not know exactly what Harry wants. The simple answer may be nothing more than a fresh start and to be loved uncomplainingly by his father again. But experience has taught them that they cannot be sure.

[From The Daily Mail]

There are similar elements here to Harry’s dealings with his grandmother – he had a personal relationship with her, he loved her as a grandmother AND his queen, but the courtiers were befuddled by that because Harry was supposed to regard his grandmother coldly, and simply as a distant monarch. Same situation here: Harry wants to talk to his father, not the king. The courtiers don’t understand that, and frankly neither does Charles. Because Charles “has never found fatherhood easy.” Probably because he’s spent most of his adult life wishing he could be Camilla’s tampon, not a better father. Anyway, all of this ink is being spilled over a meeting which didn’t happen, which means that the palace is refusing to take the L. It’s been f–kup after f–kup with “the Sussex problem.” Harry and Meghan simply won’t play by their rules or come crawling back, begging on their hands and knees for “forgiveness.” That’s what all of these people are really mad about.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.