King Charles' fears losing spotlight to Prince Harry as duke returns to UK

King Charles is understood to have denied meeting with Prince Harry over fears of his upcoming event being overshadowed.

The 75-year-old monarch is set to host a garden party for 5,000 people later today, as the Duke of Sussex gears up to attend service of Thanksgiving for Invictus Games sans family support.

Speaking to The Daily Beast, a former palace courtier revealed: “Of course reconciliation between father and son is important. But the problem is that any meeting with Harry would have completely overshadowed Charles’ ongoing return to work this week, which is what his office, quite rightly, would see as the story of the week.

“Charles is hosting a garden party for 5,000 people on Wednesday. That’s a pretty miraculous and brave thing for a man being treated for cancer to do. Does he really want that pushed off the front pages?” they explained.

“His office don’t want to think about the Duke of Sussex. I think if the country was clamoring for Charles to meet Harry, he absolutely would have met him, but Harry is still very unpopular in the U.K,” the source continued.

“Plenty of people still think Harry ruined the final years of his grandparents (Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip) with his attacks on her life’s work.

“Does Charles want to spend his political capital rehabilitating Harry, especially if Harry then uses that to enhance his commercial deals? That’s why a lot of us were skeptical that there was going to be some big heart to heart this week,” they added.