As we discussed yesterday, the Mirror ran a weird story about King Charles’s newfound commitment to being in Prince Archie and Princess Lili’s lives. A source claimed that Charles “would never be content with just seeing his grandchildren on the odd video call.” Which says, to me, that Charles barely even makes time for videocalls with his grandkids – he reportedly saw Archie and Lili via video call on his birthday last year, and I bet that was the last time. Ingrid C-Word was also tasked with trying to make Charles sound like a doting grandfather, and she said: “He does not want a FaceTime relationship with his son’s children. He wants to know them and be involved with their lives while they are still young enough to be able to learn from his wisdom.” What’s interesting about all of this is… no one seems to be buying any part of it. Charles’s actions for two years have shown that he doesn’t give a f–k about the Sussex family whatsoever. Even the Daily Beast’s Royalist called him out: “The King Says He Wants to See Prince Harry’s Kids. So, Er, Why Kick Them Out?”

Cynics might argue that if the king really wanted to see more of the Sussexes he wouldn’t have stripped them of their U.K. home. Many believe that Charles has made it as difficult as possible for Harry to visit the U.K. to avoid him setting up a rival court.

Prince Harry’s camp have long argued that he has made it more difficult for Harry to visit the U.K. safely with his family by evicting him from his home on the royal estate, Frogmore Cottage, where Harry’s children’s security would have been assured by being within the royal protection envelope. Indeed, Omid Scobie in his book Endgame said none other than Harry made this exact point to his father, responding, when told to pack his bags and clear out of Frogmore, “Don’t you want to see your grandchildren again?”

Scobie called the decision from Charles to evict Harry “a cheap shot from a wounded father bound by an institutional system that is often intolerant of human emotion.”

Frogmore, Scobie says, was regarded by the Sussexes as the “only true safe option when visiting the United Kingdom,” due to the royal estate being guarded round the clock by armed guards.

Charles is understood to have seen Archie only a handful of times and has only met Lilibet, who was born in America, once. Charles reportedly turned down an invitation to Lilibet’s christening in California.

[From The Daily Beast]

It feels notable that there’s any pushback on Charles’s attempts to go back to briefings-as-usual about how he obviously wants to see Harry and Harry’s children (but not Meghan). Tom Sykes is right – the Frogmore eviction was absolutely the turning point, as was Harry’s most recent visit to the UK. When Harry released the statement on May 7th about how there were no plans to meet with Charles during his visit because of “the king’s full program,” it really was a game-changer. Harry isn’t playing Charles’s stupid games anymore and Charles showed his panic about that in the days and weeks that followed.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.