Prince Harry 'Never' Received Invitation To King Charles' Birthday Despite Reports He Rejected It
Prince Harry has shut down claims that he declined an invitation to his father King Charles III's upcoming 75th birthday celebration.
The Duke of Sussex's spokesperson said in a statement to the Messenger Monday that Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle had not received invitations to any bash for the King's birthday.
"In response to UK media headlines, there has been no contact regarding an invitation to His Majesty's upcoming birthday," the spokesperson said. "It is disappointing the Sunday Times has misreported this story."
An unnamed royal source also told the Messenger that Buckingham Palace "never reached out" to Prince Harry.
A spokesperson for the palace declined to comment to the outlet.
The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that King Charles will celebrate his birthday at Clarence House on Nov. 14 with his close family and friends, including his wife, Queen Camilla, 76; his older son Prince William, 41; and daughter-in-law Kate Middleton, 41.
However, the news outlet reported that Prince Harry would not make the trip from California, where he relocated in 2020 with Markle and their family, despite being invited.
An unnamed royal insider told the Times that King Charles extended an invitation to his son as an olive branch amid their rift.
"There are issues that aren't resolved, and there won't be a rapprochement any time soon. There is the sense of a cooling-off period from the family that is underway after the aftershocks of the book and interviews. But that doesn't change the King's love for his son. He'll never not invite his son to a family gathering because that's not who he is," the insider claimed.
Prince Harry and King Charles reportedly have had a strained relationship for several years.
The father and son's rift allegedly deepened after the release of Prince Harry and Markle's Netflix docuseries last year and the Duke of Sussex's bombshell memoir, "Spare," in January.
In the book, Prince Harry accused King Charles of making "unfunny" jokes about his "real" dad amid the rumor circulating that the duke's father was actually Major James Hewitt.
Four months following the release of his tell-all book, Prince Harry attended King Charles' coronation ceremony in London in May without Markle, who remained in California to celebrate their son Archie's birthday, which fell on the same day.
But the Duke of Sussex flew home to California right after the ceremony and did not attend any other coronation festivities.
People quoted an unnamed "close friend" as saying that Prince Harry had wanted to sit down with his father and talk through their issues but realized it wasn't going to happen when he did not even hear about the coronation from Charles himself.
"They didn't hear from Charles. Harry wanted to hear from his father directly - it's always through somebody," the friend told the outlet.
The Daily Telegraph associate editor Camilla Tominey recently quoted an unnamed "well-placed insider" as saying that communications between King Charles and Prince Harry "remain pretty poor" nearly a year after the release of "Spare."
"They don't speak much, if at all," the source claimed.
