Prince Harry has been accused of using his kids as "leverage" around security against King Charles, according to the monarch's friends.
The Duke of Sussex is using "emotional blackmail" by dangling the threat of the king never again meeting his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, friends of the King told The Daily Beast.
They alleged the Duke of trying to put pressure on the 75-year-old to use his influence to get Harry and his family the automatic security while in the U.K.
However, a source close to Harry rejected that notion, telling the outlet that vile threats to Harry were very real, and that one of the main reasons the prince wanted the UK police security was so his children could get to "know his home country."
The source went on saying that Harry had even offered "to cover the cost of security, so as not to impose on the British taxpayer."
Harry has lost round after round of the case seeking to have those privileges restored, and is currently squaring up for a last chance to appeal the excoriating rulings which have consistently gone against him.
The issue burst into the open again last week when Harry claimed in a television interview: "The idea that the security forces are going to allow the Sussexes to be attacked by an acid-throwing or knife-wielding maniac on British soil is absurd, and Harry knows it."
However, one friend of the king told the outlet: "Harry has lost his security case in court, and is now trying the emotional blackmail route to get what he wants instead, cynically using the threat of Archie and Lilibet never meeting their grandfather again as a tactic to coerce the king into overruling RAVEC.
"The idea that the security forces are going to allow the Sussexes to be attacked by an acid-throwing or knife-wielding maniac on British soil is absurd, and Harry knows it. Using it as leverage, as a reason to withhold his kids from their grandfather, is beyond contempt. Charles is being treated for very serious cancer, so even if he could find the time, he cannot just fly to Los Angeles at the drop of a hat, like Harry can—and actually did earlier this year—in the other direction."
The source, an old family friend of several generations of royals, added: “I wonder, when they are older, how those kids will feel about being denied a meaningful relationship with the King of England.
They continued: "To deprive them of that experience, with all its importance and heritage, seems very misguided. Of course he wants to see them, but if you force Charles to choose between his duty to the Crown and his personal feelings, he will choose the Crown every time—just as his mother did."
“The king is absolutely committed to being present in all of his grandchildren’s lives. He values family above everything and whatever the course of his relationship with his son, he would never be content with just seeing his grandchildren on the odd video call,” a separate source told Mirror.
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