HOLLY WAINWRIGHT: 'King Charles is "furious" with one of his sons. And it's not Harry.'

This article originally appeared on Holly Wainwright's Substack, Holly Out Loud. Sign up here.

"Please, boys. Don't make my final years a misery."

These are the words the King of England said to his sons as their relationship began to crumble from all three points.

How do we know? Because one of the people present at the time told us: Prince Harry. In his (kick-arse, as I can always be relied upon to say) memoir, Spare, the Duke Of Sussex wrote that in 2021, after his grandfather's funeral, the three got together to discuss Harry's exit from official royal life. Things got tense and Charles "looked up at our flushed faces" and made his plea.

So far, his sons seem to have roundly ignored it.

Yes, I have been voiceless lately thanks to the flu, but it's been a rich week for one of my specialist subjects, and I can't just resist a (republican) royal round-up. So here goes.

Watch: Mia, Amelia and Jessie discuss the royal drama going on behind the scenes on Mamamia Out Loud. Post continues after video.

Some may suggest that making small talk with President Trump for several hours at a State Dinner is a kind of hell. But this week all the breathless reporting around Prince Harry's recent European tour settled, and while he and his Dad did indeed share tea and cake (the posh-English equivalent of breaking bread), the King remains trapped in purgatory when it comes to his sons, their relationship, and everyone's Daddy Issues.

On Monday's Out Loud, Mia, Amelia and Jessie discussed how royal reporters are convinced the current point of tension in the great Windsor Heir Triangle is not between Harry and Charles, but between Charles and William.

King Charles, they said, quoting the creditable reporting of Tom Sykes, thinks William needs to work harder. That royal records show that over the past 12 months he has only worked on 107 days, compared to the King's 175, and Princess Anne's astonishing 189.

Of course, this is in the context of William's wife Kate's cancer treatment and the fact he might have wanted to be home with his three little kids. But that's part of what's pissing the King off, apparently.

"Somehow, William's parenting dedication always seems couched as a tacit criticism of the king's own paternal deficiencies," the impeccably-sourced Tina Brown wrote in her Fresh Hell newsletter this week. Which sounds very true.

What it took to be an 'involved' dad when you grew up an aristocratic Boomer, like Charles, does not touch Millennial standards.

And for Charles' boys, whose mother was killed when they were only 15 and 12, being good fathers is a deeply emotional point of pride.

In Spare, Harry wrote that his dad: "[Had] always given an air of being not quite ready for parenthood — the responsibilities, the patience, the time. Even he, though a proud man, would've admitted as much. But single parenthood? Pa was never made for that."

Posh parenting, in the aristocratic English sense, is neither hands-on nor Gentle.

Nannies, governesses and boarding schools collided with stiff upper-lips and duty to make Charles' childhood a cold place. He and Princess Anne were often left behind for months at a time — sometimes six months at a time — when their parents were on royal tours, and reunions were marked by an affectionate pat on the head rather than a warm hug.

Charles wanted things to be different, Harry wrote: "To be fair, he tried. Evenings, I'd shout downstairs: 'Going to bed, Pa!' He'd always shout back cheerfully: 'I'll be there shortly, darling boy!' True to his word, minutes later he'd be sitting on the edge of my bed."

But (thankfully) night-night isn't enough for his sons or a generation of Millennial Dads. Harry, of course, has spoken openly about how he doesn't want to repeat Charles' mistakes.

"It leaves me in the position how as a father, I have two kids of my own, making sure that I smother them with love and affection," he said while promoting his book in 2023.

"As a father I feel a huge responsibility to ensure that I don't pass on any traumas or negative experiences I've had."

But just as Prince William has never been able to be as open as his little brother about the impact of the loss of their mother, he also 'can't'. Translation: because he is English, royal, going to be King, it's just not done, etc etc.

William can't tell the world so outwardly that he wants to be a better dad. So he walks the walk, by putting family above duty, and risking Charles' wrath.

And now, if the reporting's to be believed, all these Daddy Issues have resulted in Charles' decision to reunite with the man who William sees as the treacherous turncoat who sold all their secrets for money.

It must be kind of galling to be William this week.

Tasked with softening Donald Trump's attitude to UK trade deals and tariffs, he and (moreso) Kate had to be in glam for hours. In several outfit changes and in front of the world's cameras, they had to laugh at Trump's jokes, not offend in any way, make small talk with Melania, and never upstage the King and Queen while doing so.

The Prince and Princess of Wales were tasked with entertaining US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump this week. Image: Getty

The table they all sat down to took four days and 10 people to set. Tiaras sparkled and silverware was at high-shine to dazzle Trump — who apparently loves the Royals because his Scottish mother considered them the highest expression of sophistication and glamour — into discouraging his sometime friends JD Vance and Elon Musk from calling for the UK Government to be overthrown.

It all feels unlikely, stuffy and desperately out of touch.

Meanwhile, Harry is already back in the orange-glow sunset of Montecito, probably barefoot at drinks with Oprah, having just moved quickly in and out of Ukraine, a war-ravaged nation where he wore jeans, ate chips with reporters at the side of the road and received a hero's welcome for the work he's doing there with injured veterans.

This was after he zoomed across Britain in a whirl of informal photo opps, wrote a big fat cheque of his own money for a children's charity he believed in and managed to fit in tea and biscuits at an historic sit-down with his elderly, estranged dad.

"But Daddy", you can imagine William hissing to his father, as Kate lowers her eyes at an advancing American autocrat as if he's someone she'd consider talking to under any other circumstances. "It's Not Fair."

"Shush," Charles might say. "You sound just like your brother."

Listen: Stacey, Amelia and Monz discuss the rise of the 'stealth parent' on the latest episode of Parenting Out Loud.

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Feature Image: Instagram/@princeandprincessofwales/Getty.