Royals Step Out as Harry Visits Hospital, but Father-Son Meeting Still Eludes Them

It was, in many ways, a study in contrasts: Windsor on one side and Montecito on the other. Both stepped into the public eye yesterday, but only one appeared entirely at ease in the spotlight.

After several days in which private family tensions had spilled into public view, the King and Queen and the Prince of Wales returned to the rhythm of scheduled royal duties, making the most of the sunshine during engagements in London and on the South Coast.

For Their Majesties, the day’s destination was London Zoo, where they helped celebrate its 200th anniversary. The visit brought a string of light-hearted moments, from assisting with a penguin health check to feeding a giant Galapagos tortoise and even painting the shell of a tiny snail.

The King, wearing stylish sunglasses, remained resolutely in his suit jacket despite the sweltering heat, while Queen Camilla kept cool with a parasol and chose an animal-print dress that suited the setting perfectly.

Both threw themselves into the zoo-themed duties with good humour. The King delighted the watching crowds as he chatted animatedly and gestured to onlookers, while Camilla smiled broadly as she christened a queen bee in her own name.

The Prince of Wales, meanwhile, was in Hastings, East Sussex, where his programme had a distinctly seaside feel. He travelled on a Victorian funicular, tried his hand at crazy golf and thrilled groups of schoolchildren he encountered on the beach.

Looking tanned, relaxed and in easy conversation with those around him, William gave little outward sign of being weighed down by the week’s headlines.

That mood stood in sharp contrast to footage of his estranged brother, who was in Birmingham at the Children’s Hospital, seeking to recapture some of the old rapport during an appearance connected to WellChild, one of his longest-standing charitable associations.

Although he was clearly passionate and undertaking all the elements of a traditional royal visit that you would expect – speaking to children, cutting a cake and posing for photographs with a group of nurses – the carefully curated video footage released shows Harry, 41, minus his familiar fizz and looking slightly lost behind the eyes. 

It hasn’t been a good week for the prince, after a spectacular spat with his father over royal accommodation for his trip – which saw Buckingham Palace publicly slap him down on Monday – and his drastic High Court loss against the Daily Mail over claims of unlawful information gathering, which were unceremoniously rejected by a senior judge on Tuesday.

His media team, who had only ever planned for a small and carefully curated group of journalists to cover his week of engagements in the UK on what is known as a ‘pool’ basis, then pulled all media access from events at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea the following day.

The prince quietly slipped into the building, avoiding reporters and photographers gathered outside.

Buckingham Palace had hoped this week would see a ‘peaceful’ trip by the Sussexes, which could see him quietly meet his grandchildren, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, for the first time in four years.

The leaks, spin, psychodrama and histrionics from Team Sussex in recent weeks, however, have made a low-key visit utterly impossible now.

That’s not to say it won’t happen.

It has now been reported that the Duchess of Sussex and her two children Archie and Lilibet could come to the UK this weekend.

I am told that despite everything the King, whose patience has very much been pushed to the limits of late, is amenable to meeting.

That does not mean he is in a mood to forgive or forget the outrageous injustices meted out by his younger son over the last few years.

But he is a pragmatic man of 77 who remains living with cancer (albeit doing very well, according to his doctors).

And there are many, including himself, that believe the children should not be made to suffer even if the mess is one of their parents’ own making.

If, as expected, the Sussexes make their home at Althorp, the ancestral home of Harry’s maternal family, the Spencers, for the next couple of days, it may be that a meeting doesn’t take place until this weekend – or possibly even Monday, before His Majesty embarks on another busy week of engagements.

Highgrove, Sandringham or Windsor could be a venue, as Harry has made clear he won’t bring his family to London because he is convinced it is ‘unsafe’.

Conversations over the issue, I am told, remain live and ongoing behind the scenes.

While the King is still willing – just – to cooperate, it is up to Harry now to snatch at least one minor victory from the jaws of defeat.

How he handles any such meeting may determine the entire future of family relations between the two rival houses.