King Charles paid £12.9 million in tax last year – the first monarch to disclose his tax details publicly – even as his main source of public funding is set to rise to around £100 million over the next two years, according to Buckingham Palace, which said the move would provide greater transparency and accountability.
But while the palace projects openness, the King is grappling with a more private turmoil: the bitter estrangement between his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. Next month, Harry is due to return to the UK with his wife Meghan and their children for the first time in four years – a journey made feasible only by Charles’s peace offering. The cancer-afflicted monarch, royal author and historian Andrew Lownie told the Mirror, appears driven by “genuine reconciliation”, adding: “No one wants to fall out with their children, and I think there’s a genuine personal desire here to see his grandchildren. But I also think the King believes that having an estranged royal is not good for the optics.”
“King Charles paid £12.9m tax while public funding rises to £100m; he brokers Harry’s UK visit, infuriating William.”
Harry’s security arrangements are still being assessed by the Home Office, but the duke has grudgingly considered the security provisions of Charles’s proposal – accommodation in a royal property, which had previously been declined – as “sufficient” for the visit. The trip has long been under preparation, with Harry due to attend occasions marking the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham.
Yet Prince William remains firm, with “no plans” to reconnect with the Sussex family while they are visiting. Royal expert Katie Nicholl suggested in Vanity Fair that William has been disregarding Harry’s efforts to establish contact, and that the future monarch feels “irritated” that Charles is “bending over backwards” for his youngest son. Lownie argues Charles will need to “deal with William, who clearly is adamant that they have nothing to do with Harry”.
“It’s a matter of banging some heads together and saying, ‘Look, we’re going to be a bit more grown up about this,’” Lownie told the Mirror. “This is [Charles] exerting his authority a bit more.”