(London) Prince Harry, seen Wednesday at Heathrow Airport according to British media, only stayed a day in the United Kingdom to visit his father, King Charles III, who is suffering from cancer, and without having seen his brother William.
The Duke of Sussex arrived by plane on Tuesday from California, where he lives with his wife Meghan Markle and their two children, the day after the palace announced Charles III’s cancer.
He immediately went under police escort to Clarence House, the sovereign’s London residence, where father and son saw each other briefly, for less than an hour, before the king, accompanied by Queen Camilla, left London for the royal residence of Sandringham in eastern England.
PHOTO TOBY MELVILLE, REUTERS
A car believed to be carrying Prince Harry enters Clarence House, the residence of King Charles, the day after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Harry was photographed smiling and relaxed on Wednesday afternoon at Heathrow Airport where he is due to fly back to the United States, according to British media.
His return had raised questions and speculation about a possible reconciliation, or at least a meeting, with his older brother William, with whom relations have been severed since Harry’s repeated public attacks against him and the royal family.
But according to media reports, during the barely more than 24 hours he spent in London, Harry did not see the heir to the throne, on the front line with his father’s withdrawal, nor his wife Kate.
The Prince of Wales presented decorations at Windsor Castle on Wednesday morning, his first official appearance in three weeks. He has to attend a charity gala in London in the evening.
The Princess of Wales is convalescing in Windsor after her ten-day hospitalization for an abdominal operation.
The last joint public appearance of the two princes, united after the death of their mother Diana in 1997, dates back to September 2022, for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
As during his whirlwind visit for Charles’ coronation in May, Prince Harry came alone, without his wife Meghan and their children, Archie and Lilibet.
In his autobiography, The Substitute, Harry is particularly critical of his eldest, whom he describes as angry, and recounts his pain at having been his “shadow, (his) understudy, (his) plan B” all his life. It also implies that William did not marry his wife Kate for love.