William and Charles' united front after Prince Harry's bombshell interview: Prince of Wales and the King set for rare double engagement at Order of the Bath service
The royal family will put on a united front amid the fallout from Prince Harry 's bombshell BBC interview, with King Charles and Prince William expected to make a rare joint appearance later this week.
The King and the Prince of Wales will attend the Order of the Bath Service at Westminster Abbey in London on May 16 - weeks after the Duke of Sussex spoke of his strained relationship with the monarch.
Speaking to the BBC after Harry, 40, lost the appeal challenging his downgraded security status, he said he did not know how long his father, who is battling an undisclosed form of cancer, had left to live.
'Some members of my family will never forgive me,' he continued.
In the extraordinary interview, the California-based royal alleged his father could have 'resolved' the dispute over his security arrangements if he wanted to - after Harry claimed to have 'uncovered shocking truths' about the Royals' involvement in decision.
He claimed his 'jaw dropped' when he discovered the Royal Household sat on the 'secretive' Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that decided to withdraw Harry's taxpayer-funded police protection in the UK.
He insinuated that more could have been done by the monarch, as well as the King's private secretary Sir Clive Alderton, who had a position on Ravec.
Harry told the BBC: 'There is a lot of control and ability in my father's hands.
'Ultimately this whole thing could be resolved through him.'
He added that while Charles 'won't speak to me because of this security stuff', Harry hoped to reconcile with his family as 'there's no point continuing to fight anymore'.
Despite his plea for reconciliation, experts suggested the scorched-earth interview may, in fact, have driven the wedge between Harry and the royal family even further - as a palace source claimed they have 'zero trust' in the Duke.
'The family feel that private conversations with Harry are not possible,' an insider told Hello, after the emotionally charged BBC interview.
The outlet further claimed that even if Charles were to rekindle a relationship with his youngest son, the same can't be said for Prince William, who has reportedly abandoned all hope of repairing his relationship with his brother.
William, instead, appears focussed on supporting Charles, 76, with Friday's engagement at Westminster Abbey marking a rare, joint appearance for the monarch and his heir.
The event will be Charles' first Service as Sovereign, with William set to be installed as Great Master of the Order during the ceremony, which will include the oath taking and installation of five Knights.
The Service for the Order of the Bath is held every four years; the monarch traditionally attends every other service - meaning once every eight years - while the Prince of Wales, as Great Master, attends each service.
The King last attended the ceremony as Prince of Wales in 2022 in his role as Great Master of the Order - one that he has held since 1975.
During his final appearance as the Great Master, before William takes over from his father on Friday, Charles donned his full regalia for the ceremony that honours officers of the Armed Services and civil servants.
It is a role traditionally carried out by the monarch, however Charles performed the duties on behalf of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, during the 2022 ceremony.
Charles first stepped in for the late Queen, who died on September 8, 2022, at the Order of the Bath Service in 2014 - after aides feared that the steps at the Abbey were 'too steep' for her while dressed in full regalia.
Ahead of Friday's service, King Charles joined Queen Camilla at a charity function in London on Tuesday, May 13.
The royal couple attended a reception and awards ceremony for Elephant Family, set up by Camilla's late brother Mark Shand, who tragically died aged just 62 after falling and suffering a head injury in 2014.
The star-studded event at The Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, West London, attracted guests including Princess Beatrice - who looked stylish in a red Rebecca Vallance gown - Lady Marina Windsor, Ronaldo Nazario, the Brazilian footballer, actors Ed Westwick and Amy Jackson and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
In an impromptu speech the King, who accompanied his wife as joint president of the charity, which is now part of Charles' British Asian Trust, said 'collaboration is far better than conflict' as he gave an impromptu speech.
During the function, Camilla, 77, became emotional as she watched a posthumous video of her brother in which he spoke about his 'optimism' for saving endangered elephants that brought her to tears.
Meanwhile, Prince William handed out honours to English Olympian Keely Hodgkinson and former Formula One driver and sports broadcaster Martin Brundle at Windsor Castle yesterday.
Speaking as Hodgkinson, 23, received an MBE at Windsor Castle yesterday, Prince William told her that Princess Charlotte, 10, watched her win gold at the women's 800m at the Paris Olympics last year.
The athlete later revealed that the Prince, 42, also shared that Charlotte, who recently celebrated her 10th birthday, is currently training for the 400m 'at the minute and the hurdles'.
During their exchange at Tuesday's investiture ceremony, William also told Hodgkinson that 'he wished he could be there' to watch her take gold in person.
'He told me that he remembers me winning and that he wished he could be there to see it himself,' the Manchester-born Olympian told PA.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
29 minutes ago
- Sky News
Rachel Reeves turning around UK's finances 'like Steve Jobs did for Apple', claims minister
Rachel Reeves will turn around the economy the way Steve Jobs turned around Apple, a cabinet minister has suggested ahead of the upcoming spending review. Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle compared the chancellor to the late Apple co-founder when asked on Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips where the £86bn for his department is coming from. The package, confirmed ahead of the full spending review next week, will see each region in England granted £500m to spend on science projects of their choice, including research into faster drug treatments. Asked by Trevor Phillips how the government is finding the money, Mr Kyle said: "Rachel raised money in taxes in the autumn, we are now allocating it per department. "But the key thing is we are going to be investing record amounts of money into the innovations of the future. "Just bear in mind that how Apple turned itself around when Steve Jobs came back to Apple, they were 90 days from insolvency. That's the kind of situation that we had when we came into office. "Steve Jobs turned it around by inventing the iMac, moving to a series of products like the iPod. "Now we are starting to invest in the vaccine processes of the future, some of the high-tech solutions that are going to be high growth. We're investing in our space sector... they will create jobs in the future." The spending review is a process used by governments to set departmental budgets for the years ahead. Asked if it will include more detail on who will receive winter fuel payments, Mr Kyle said that issue will be "dealt with in the run-up to the autumn". "This is a spending review that's going to set the overall spending constraints for government for the next period, the next three years, so you're sort of talking about two separate issues at the moment," he said. 0:42 Scrapping universal winter fuel payments was one of the first things Labour did in government - despite it not being in their manifesto - with minsters saying it was necessary because of the financial "blackhole" left behind by the Tories. But following a long-drawn out backlash, Sir Keir Starmer said last month that the government would extend eligibility, which is now limited to those on pension credit. It is not clear what the new criteria will be, though Ms Reeves has said the changes will come into place before this winter. Mr Kyle also claimed the spending review will see the government invest "the most we've ever spent per pupil in our school system". However, he said the chancellor will stick to her self-imposed fiscal rules - which rule out borrowing for day-to-day spending - meaning that while some departments will get extra money, others are likely to face cuts.
Auto Express
37 minutes ago
- Auto Express
The car is still king! Ridiculous train fares make them look like absolute bargains
When I'm not happily driving cars, I'm a grudging train passenger who's regularly ripped off, let down or disillusioned by this much-hyped strike-prone public transport. The customer experience is so underwhelming that my confidence in, and respect for, Britain's heavily subsidised rail industry has rarely – if ever – been lower. Advertisement - Article continues below I'm not sure if it's me giving up on the train or the train giving up on me. Either way, the 'alternative to the car' is as implausible now as it was in the nineties, when notoriously hypocritical Transport Secretary John Prescott (a user of two Jaguars) told me to tell you, dear reader, that the train would soon take over as the preferred mode of transport for the average Brit. This was as blatantly untrue then as it is now, not least because the cost of rail travel is exorbitant. Travel from, say, Cardiff to Aberdeen and the standard single/one-way fare is from £285.50 – more than many flights from the UK to the Far East. People in central London doing short journeys can pay up to £15 per mile. In the Stratford quarter of the capital, passengers can pay up to £2.21 per minute on the fastest trains. A standard annual season ticket from Ebbsfleet, Kent, to St Pancras, 20 miles and minutes up the line, costs £6,000-plus. Add £1,815 for a yearly parking pass and an extra £2,000 for tube or taxi fares and we're talking £10,000 or more per annum. That's enough to buy a used car, refuel petrol tanks for several years, or charge an electric car at home for well over a decade. If tickets weren't so prohibitively expensive and responsible for preventing freedom of movement among low-paid workers, students, shoppers, holidaymakers and cash-strapped folk seeking jobs, social lives or both, they'd be comical. But current Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander can still deliver some rail-related hilarity – as she proved with her performance on 25 May, when her Government began renationalising rail services. 'Today marks a new dawn for our railways,' she enthused during her away-day on the first renationalised train from London's Waterloo station. Further promises included 'moving away from 30 years of failing passengers', who now get 'higher standards'. She has to be the funniest Transport Sec cum stand-up comedian since Two Jags Prescott. How so? Because her highly symbolic train ride couldn't be completed by, er, train. It took her four times longer than scheduled. And it was completed only after passengers were embarrassingly turfed off and ordered to complete their journeys in dreaded rail-replacement buses which, in my experience, are even more unpleasant (if that's possible) than iffy trains or railway lines. If Britain's highest-ranking transport politician believes that this latest fiasco and wallet-busting fares represent 'higher standards', she's more out of her depth than I feared. Trains too expensive in your area? We can help you find a great deal on a new car instead ...
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Spending review: Schools to get more funding but police warned to ‘do their bit'
Schools are set to receive a funding boost in the spending review, a Cabinet minister has indicated, as he insisted other public services must 'do their bit' amid concerns about cuts to other budgets. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said the Government will commit to investing 'the most we've ever spent per pupil' next week, but declined to rule out the prospect of a real-terms squeeze on areas such as policing. Facing questions from broadcasters on Sunday about which public services will be prioritised, Mr Kyle said 'every part of our society is struggling' and numerous sectors had asked Chancellor Rachel Reeves for more money. 'On the fact that the police have been writing to the Chancellor, they have,' the Cabinet minister told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme. 'We also have letters from the universities, we have letters from doctors about the health service, we have letters from campaigners for child poverty writing to us, and other aspects of challenges in Britain at the moment. 'Every part of our society is struggling because of the inheritance that we had as a country and as a Government.' He pointed to the £1.1 billion extra funding already earmarked for police this year, warning that public services would be expected to 'do their bit' alongside Government as he defended Ms Reeves' stewardship of the country's finances. 'We expect the police to start embracing the change they need to do, to do their bit for change as well. We are doing our bit,' Mr Kyle said. 'You see a Chancellor that is striving to get investment to the key parts of our country that needs it the most… You will see the priorities of this Government reflected in the spending review, which sets the departmental spending into the long term. 'But this is a partnership. Yes, the Treasury needs to find more money for those key priorities, but the people delivering them need to do their bit as well.' The Department of Health is set to be the biggest winner in Ms Reeves' spending review on Wednesday, with the NHS receiving a boost of up to £30 billion at the expense of other public services. Economists have said the expected 2.8% annual increase in its day-to-day budget, which amounts to a rise of about £30 billion by 2028, or £17 billion in real terms, will see other departments squeezed. Speaking on Sunday, Mr Kyle said the schools system, along with an £86 billion funding package for research and development, would be top priorities as the Government seeks to 'invest in the future.' 'You will see in this spending review that we are investing the most we've ever spent per pupil in our school system,' he told Sky News. Mr Kyle said Labour was 'absolutely laser-focused' on delivering manifesto pledges amid questions about how competing commitments will be balanced with little room for manoeuvre amid narrow fiscal headroom. Asked about the Government's plan to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of the Parliament, the minister declined to guarantee Housing Secretary Angela Rayner's department would not face cuts. But he added: 'We made a manifesto commitment. We are absolutely laser-focused on delivering that.' He said the Government was also 'on the way' to delivering 13,000 new police officers, another manifesto pledge. Ms Reeves has acknowledged that she had been forced to turn down requests for funding in a sign of the behind-the-scenes wrangling over her spending review. She blamed the former Conservative government's stewardship of the economy rather than her self-imposed fiscal rules, which include a promise to match day-to-day spending with revenues. It comes after the Government announced science and technology sectors would receive new funding as part of an £86 billion package set to be confirmed next week. Mr Kyle's Department for Science, Technology and Innovation (DSIT) said the money would help research into new drug treatments and microchips used to power mobile phones and electric cars. The Tories accused Labour of copying their own plans in office over the commitment. Shadow technology secretary Alan Mak said: 'Labour's central budget announcement seems to be a reheat of Conservative plans just showing this Chancellor will copy and paste anyone's ideas to get out of the mess that she's put herself in. 'As Labour and Reform squabble over how to spend more taxpayers money, only the Conservatives are creating a serious plan for government to deliver growth and give you your country back.'
