King Charles paid £12.9 million in tax last year – becoming the first monarch to reveal his tax details publicly, in a move Buckingham Palace said would provide greater transparency and accountability. Yet even as his main source of public funding is set to rise to around £100 million over the next two years, the cancer-afflicted monarch is grappling with a more personal challenge: ending the estrangement between his two sons.
Next month, Prince 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 what royal sources describe as King Charles’s peace offering. After years of declining royal accommodation, Harry has grudgingly accepted the King’s proposal to house the family in a royal property, deeming the security provisions ‘sufficient’ for the visit. The trip has long been in preparation, with Harry due to attend events marking the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham.
“King Charles paid £12.9m in tax last year while his public funding is set to rise to £100m, as he brokers peace between Harry and William.”
But Prince William remains firm in his determination, with ‘no plans’ to reconnect with the Sussex family during their visit. Royal author and historian Andrew Lownie told the Mirror that Charles’s efforts to reconcile with Harry demonstrate leadership and a genuine desire to repair relations. “I think that’s genuine reconciliation,” Lownie said. “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.”
Lownie added that Charles will need to “deal with William, who clearly is adamant that they have nothing to do with Harry.” He suggested the King is “banging some heads together and saying, ‘Look, we’re going to be a bit more grown up about this’” – a move Lownie described as Charles “exerting his authority a bit more.” Meanwhile, royal expert Katie Nicholl indicated in Vanity Fair that William has been ignoring Harry’s attempts at contact, and feels ‘irritated’ that Charles is ‘bending over backwards’ for his youngest son.
As the King’s public funding swells and his tax bill becomes public, the question of whether he can also mend the fracture in his own family remains unresolved.