Royal insider Emily Andrews to the Waleses’ inner circle about why they were ‘blindsighted’ by the meeting.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Emily Andrews<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1805802228.jpg” alt=”Kate and William” title_text=”The State Visit Of The President Of The Republic Of Korea – Day 1″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] It was the meeting that no-one thought would ever happen. Over drinks at the Royal Over-Seas League private members\u2019 club, Prince Harry and the King\u2019s top aides met for a \u2018secret peace summit.\u2019 It was an interesting development as there has been little interaction between the two households, and Harry has publicly said his father refuses to speak to him, but tellingly, there was no seat at the table for anyone representing the Prince and Princess of Wales.<\/p>\n I\u2019m told there was no communication with their household at Kensington Palace and it\u2019s unlikely that William and Kate even knew the meeting was happening. Instead, the couple were focused on their official roles at the French State Visit, welcoming President and Brigitte Macron at RAF Northolt and accompanying them to Windsor Castle where they were hosted for the state banquet.<\/p>\n Kate dazzled in Dior and Sarah Burton for Givenchy, her first state visit since recovering from cancer, in a welcome return to form after she missed Ascot. As patron of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, she also was on court to present the trophies to the winners. But a clear insight into her renewed priorities came when she visited the RHS Wellbeing garden at Colchester Hospital.<\/p>\n Revealing her current state of mind now her chemotherapy had ended, she said it was much harder than she\u2019d ever anticipated. She told a group of fellow cancer patients: \u2018You put on a sort of brave face; stoicism through treatment. Treatment\u2019s done, then it\u2019s like, \u201cI can crack on, get back to normal,\u201d but actually, the phase afterwards is really, really difficult\u2026You have to find your new normal and that takes time. It\u2019s a rollercoaster.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2225018849-scaled.jpg” alt=”Kate Middleton” title_text=”2025 Wimbledon Championships – Day 14″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Where once Kate might have been the peacemaker between William and Harry (as she was at Prince Philip\u2019s funeral in 2021), her focus is now on her \u2018new normal\u2019 and her own family. \u2018After everything that Catherine has been through, I think she\u2019s just concentrating on herself and her family,\u2019 one friend told me. \u2018She and William have just put aside all the Sussex drama as they have more important things to think about.\u2019<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s public war of words against his brother and sister-in-law have certainly caused much pain – none more so than in his autobiography Spare. As Robert Jobson, author of Catherine, the Princess of Wales, tells me: \u2018Don\u2019t forget that Harry hasn\u2019t just broken his brother\u2019s trust, he\u2019s broken Catherine\u2019s trust too. He accused William of being a violent bully, was rude about Catherine and included all sorts of details in his book that made her look awful. She and Harry were very close in the past so she\u2019s been heartbroken by what\u2019s happened. Although she prefers harmony to discord, there are limits. William is in no mood for reconciliation with his brother, and I can\u2019t see Catherine feeling any different.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] While Harry may say he wants to make up with his family, it\u2019s clear that he\u2019s only reaching out to his father, not his older brother or sister-in-law. There has been no communication with them, or with their aides. So what was really going on at the so-called \u2018peace summit’? It was a positive first step that the King\u2019s communications secretary and two of Harry\u2019s comms chiefs met in London, and I\u2019m told that they met with both Charles and Harry\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a long road toward reconciliation between Harry, 40, and Charles, 76 – whose years-long rift has left communication between them all but nonexistent (the last time Harry saw or apparently spoke to his father was 18 months ago when the King was diagnosed with cancer). In reality, the meeting was a \u2018casual drink\u2019 between communications professionals, providing an ‘opportunity to connect and ensure a smoother working relationship in terms of scheduling conflicts\u2019.<\/p>\n Still, this kind of dialogue hasn\u2019t taken place in the recent past – and now, lines of communication appear to be reopening.<\/p>\n Ultimately, any real success from the talks at the will be measured by whether Harry and Charles themselves – not just their teams – can begin to repair their fractured relationship. Harry is expected to return to the UK in September, visiting the WellChild charity, of which he is still patron – which could also represent a chance to meet his father. The King had felt unable to see his son due to the High Court fight over losing his police bodyguards, but now that seems to be finished.<\/p>\n \u2018Any father would want to heal a rift, particularly when he\u2019s not well himself,\u2019 Jobson says. \u2018He wouldn\u2019t want it to go on indefinitely. This meeting was about keeping the backdoor of communication open, but there\u2019s cause for optimism between father and son. But between the brothers, I\u2019m not convinced either side is in any mood for reconciliation.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photos: <\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They were ‘blindsighted’ by the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":12183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12180"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12191,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180\/revisions\/12191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘It was a positive first step.’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-469137027-2-scaled.jpg” alt=”William and Harry” title_text=”The Prince Of Wales & Duke Of Cambridge Attend The Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]