Royal insiders blame King Charles’ “men in gray suits” for the latest chaotic dispute surrounding Prince Harry and his ill-fated trip to the UK.
Early Monday, Harry’s reps announced he had accepted an invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace this week, after finalizing his security plans — only for palace staffers to brief that it would be impossible because he missed a July 3 deadline to let them know he was coming.
Harry, 41, arrived in London Monday afternoon, but it’s not yet known where he’s staying.
“If they wanted him to stay there they would find him a room even if he arrived in the middle of the night, let’s face it,” Hugo Vickers, royal biographer and friend of the family, told Page Six.
Indeed, the palace recently underwent a £300 renovation, leading one Sussex source to tell Page Six: “How is there not one room available for the king’s son for one night?”
But Vickers does not blame the king, saying Charles’ staffers — whom Harry famously called the “men in gray suits” in his memoir, “Spare” — are in charge of protocol.
“The courtiers. It’s always them, of course it is,” he said. “If the king wants to see Harry, they will meet. [The courtiers] can always arrange something, but this sounds like it has become far too complicated and everyone is too fed up.”
Page Six was the first to report that Harry hoped to bring his family back to his homeland for the first time in four years.
Although we are told Harry very much wanted to bring his children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, to see King Charles, there are now no plans for them to come to the UK. Instead, the renegade royal will undertake his charity commitments there, then head back to wife Meghan Markle and the kids, who are currently in Europe.
A spokesperson for Harry, aka the Duke of Sussex, told Page Six the prince had good reason for missing the deadline.
“I am aware of multiple briefings from Buckingham Palace last week suggesting that the duke had not accepted the offer of accommodation at a Royal Residence,” the spokesperson said. “Following [the Royal and VIP Executive Committee’s] decision not to provide security for his family, the duke spent last week making alternative security arrangements. Once those arrangements were in place, he was able to formally accept the offer of accommodation for himself over the weekend.”
Buckingham Palace also briefed that it would not be pertinent for Harry to stay at a royal property, as a judgment is due in his case against Associated Newspapers Limited on Tuesday and it would not be correct for Charles to be swept up in the matter.
Harry, alongside other high-profile figures including Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) — publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday — over claims of unlawful information gathering.
“Buckingham Palace has, however, been aware of that judgment since last Thursday. It is therefore unclear why, having formally accepted the accommodation offer, it has now been withdrawn at the last moment,” said the Sussex rep.
While the palace’s decision may sound heartless, Harry has often spoken about the rigidity of living within palace walls and the structures his father and the monarchy abides to.
He went as far as to say his father and brother Prince William were “trapped” within the royal system, insisting he had “huge compassion for that.”
In his bombshell 2020 interview with Oprah Winfrey, he said he too had been trapped in royal life but did not realize it until he met his wife.
Despite everything, Harry still hopes to meet with his father for the first time since last September — but any visit will be conducted in private.
All the chaos around the situation, though, “detracts from what the royal family is really trying to do, which is represent the UK and the Commonwealth and do good,” said Vickers of the trip. “This will potentially make the king look bad, and it just creates more division.”
Sources said it’s all the more galling because Harry has been trying to get the same armed security as senior working royals approved by the UK government — and Charles’ private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, sits on RAVEC, the committee that would approve or deny his ask.
A private secretary to William also sits on the committee, as do representatives from the Risk Management Board, a secretive internal royal body chaired by a senior private secretary.
Charles, 77, has a busy week of engagements and meetings ahead of him separate of seeing his son. On Monday, he took a ride in a British Army tank during his first visit to the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) since becoming Colonel-in-Chief.
Harry, meanwhile, plans to attend an Invictus Games Foundation event at Chatham House in London to speak with experts and policymakers. He is then scheduled to visit veterans at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Later in the week, he will travel to Birmingham for events at the National Exhibition Centre to mark exactly one year until the 2027 Invictus Games.
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