King Charles "Crushed" After Being Given 20-Minute Notice of Prince Harry's Bombshell Announcement, Insider Claims
Prince Harry allegedly blindsided his father.
Last week as Prince Harry sat three rows back from his immediate family at the Coronation of his father, King Charles, the world was reminded of the dissolution of Harry's relationships with the entire Royal Family. In his book Spare, Harry maintains that he felt different than his family from the start, made to feel less important than his brother, Prince William, heir to the throne just behind their father.
Nonetheless, a book penned by one of Harry's friends and biographers, Omid Scoobie, reminds us that a significant wedge was put between Harry and his father the day he decided to go public with his romance with American actress Meghan Markle.
In Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of the Modern Royal Family, Scoobie, and co-author Carolyn Durand maintain that King Charles wasn't notified that Harry would be dropping the big bombshell until 20 minutes before it happened.
At the time, Charles was on a tour of the Gulf and getting ready to meet the King of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf sovereign state. The announcement overshadowed the media coverage of his tour.
"It was a critical moment that had been in the works for months," the book says. "A statement from Kensington Palace condemning the Press and, in the same breath, confirming Harry's new girlfriend would all but eliminate coverage of Prince Charles's tour of the Gulf."
Team Charles was very upset by the timing of the announcement. "The team at Clarence House, which had spent months putting together Prince Charles' tour in the hopes that it would be covered significantly, was crushed," authors claim.
While the King was "disappointed" with the timing, he "understood" that Harry and Meghan believed it was the right time to address speculation about their relationship. The King "understood that the situation with Meghan had reached a tipping point," the book says.
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According to the book, Harry cut ties with a friend around this time, as they were "gossiping about Meghan." He was also ready to go after anyone who had something bad to say about her or "questioned his new relationship."
