Reunion between King Charles and Prince Harry unlikely when monarch visits North America next week, Canada tour | Opinion

OPINION – – Next week King Charles and his estranged son Prince Harry will be closer than they have been in months when the monarch makes a long-awaited visit to North America.

But if royal watchers are hoping for a meeting between father and son, they are likely to be disappointed.

The Duke of Sussex recently appealed for a reconciliation while admitting his father “won’t speak” to him.

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King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla will travel to Canada on Monday, the monarch’s first as sovereign.

They will be in Ottawa for two days and on Tuesday the King will attend the State Opening of Parliament, marking just the second time a sovereign has done so.

The first was in 1957 when Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was present for the occasion.

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Next week’s tour will be King Charles’ 20th visit to Canada and Queen Camilla’s sixth.

The King and Queen, as Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, last visited Canada in 2022 to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Overnight, the royal couple were at Canada House in London in preparation of their visit.

Canada House showcases the country’s art, design and culture and serves as home to the Canadian High Commission in the UK.

Coincidentally, it was Canada House where Prince Harry and Meghan attended an engagement one day before making their bombshell announcement about leaving the royal family five years ago.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended an event at the building on January 7, 2020 and the following day they revealed, on Instagram, their intention to step back as working royals for a life of financial independence in North America.

They had recently returned from an extended holiday in Canada where they had come to the decision to leave the UK.

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In March 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan returned to Canada before moving to Los Angeles at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, later buying their Montecito mansion in southern California.

Earlier this month, Prince Harry gave an interview from California where he spoke of his desire to make peace with his family after years of fighting.

“There have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family,” he told the BBC.

“I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious.”

But in comments likely to deepen the long-running rift between Buckingham Palace and the Sussexes, the duke said he didn’t “know how much longer my father has”, in reference to the monarch’s cancer battle, adding the King “won’t speak to me because of this security stuff”.

Reacting to losing his legal challenge to reinstate taxpayer-funded security while in the UK, Harry said: “I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point”.

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It’s been more than 15 months since King Charles and Prince Harry saw each other, face to face.

Prince Harry had returned to London after the King phoned him to let him know about his cancer diagnosis, before the news was made public in February last year.

But their meeting, at Clarence House, lasted less than an hour and the King and Queen Camilla soon left for Sandringham for a planned weekend away.

Charles and his son have not seen each other since and phone contact, by Harry’s own admission, has been limited since he sued the King’s government over his security arrangements.

And during the duke’s many return trips to London in the past year for various court cases, they have not met up.

Although they will be closer, in distance at least, next week for the first time in months, sadly a reunion between father and son is unlikely this time around. The King, put simply, will be far too busy for anything other than official business.

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