Courtiers have suggested that Prince Harry has developed a pattern of making public appearances while King Charles is overseas on state business.
In his book Charles III, Robert Hardman claims that royal staff began to notice a recurring theme during major royal visits abroad.
“Royal staff had noticed something else, too. It was starting to feel a little more than coincidental that when the King was on important business overseas, the Duke of Sussex would suddenly emerge from his hard-won privacy to make a high-profile public appearance,” he claimed.
One example came in March 2023, when King Charles travelled to Germany for the first overseas state visit of his reign.
King Charles's staff noticing ‘pattern’ in Prince Harry’s public appearances
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At the same time, Prince Harry appeared in London to attend the opening stages of one of his legal cases.
The same happened in 2025 during the King’s visit to Italy, when Harry made a surprise appearance at the Court of Appeal in London.
A few weeks later, as the King travelled to Canada, his son was in Shanghai at a conference on sustainable tourism.
“Only a cynic could possibly detect a pattern there,” one courtier told the author.
King Charles and Prince Harry have a strained relationship
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The suggestion of a deliberate strategy adds to ongoing tensions between the Duke of Sussex and the Royal Household. Hardman notes that Palace officials had become weary of the repeated interventions.
Representatives for the Duke of Sussex declined to comment when contacted by GB News.
Despite the tensions, the Sussexes' representatives and Buckingham Palace aides were photographed meeting each other in London last month. This meeting suggested positive progress in peace relations.
GB News understands Meredith Maines, Chief Communications Officer for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, was in London to meet Prince Harry and Meghan's UK Director of Communications, Liam Maguire.
King Charles and Prince Harry last met each other in February 2024
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King Charles and Prince Harry at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral | GETTY
She also met the Sussexes' UK-based team, journalists, other stakeholders and senior figures related to Prince Harry's charity work.
The visit was seen as "entirely routine" and part of ongoing planning and engagement. Ms Maines is one of Harry and Meghan's senior aides and works out of Montecito.
Hardman additionally claimed that the King has not dwelt on the ongoing difficulties with his younger son.
“People are always saying that he must be so upset by the Harry business, but when you have all that is going on in his world, you don’t have time to agonise over things beyond your control,” one member of his inner circle told the author.