King Charles and Prince Harry are talking but is a reunion a bridge too far?

Taken at face value, the fact that Prince Harry phoned his father the King to wish him a happy 75th birthday would appear to be unqualified good news.

A rapprochement between the two would signal the end of years of hostilities and put a stop to the damaging accusations that have poured forth from Montecito ever since Megxit in 2020.

Except that, after years of briefing wars between the Sussexes and the Windsors, no one who has paid even passing attention to the royal soap opera could view the latest news without at least a modicum of suspicion.

Is this really a “turning point” in the relationship between the King and his younger son, as the Sussex camp would have us believe? If so, why is Buckingham Palace so reluctant even to acknowledge that a phone call took place? Or is it just more spin designed to put Harry on the moral high ground in the ongoing battle for public sympathy?

The fact that the Palace does not deny there was a call means we can safely assume that there was indeed a conversation between Harry and his father on Tuesday. That in itself is significant, because the two have barely spoken since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, and there was no contact at all when the Duke of Sussex celebrated his 39th birthday in September.

Which leaves the questions of: who instigated the call? Why? And why did they want the public to know about it? 

The answer to the first part of the question is straightforward, as we know that sources in California have said Harry phoned his father, sent him a video of his children Archie and Lilibet singing Happy Birthday to him, and that the Duchess of Sussex also spoke to the King.

As to the why, well-placed sources have confirmed that Harry tries to contact his father on every birthday, and is not always successful.

Which leaves the rather more vexing question of why anyone might want the public to know the call had happened.

There are lots of moving parts in this particular royal story. The Sussexes are a commercial enterprise, needing to generate vast sums to pay for their lifestyle in the US, not least their privately funded security bill.

Without their royal connection, the Sussexes are just another celebrity couple (and in the US the media has already given them that status) rather than having the sheen of monarchy. If they remain frozen out and nothing changes, they will quickly run out of things to say.

The Palace’s reaction to briefings about the phone call was telling. Royal insiders say that when the news of the happy birthday call threatened to overshadow media coverage of the launch of the King’s Coronation Food Project, which had been months in the planning, there was irritation bordering on annoyance.

The King always finds it exasperating when the media focuses on what he would see as trivia rather than the important work that he does, and there is a multiplier effect when the distraction involves Harry – doubly so in a week when the King is bracing for the release of the final series of The Crown on Netflix this week, poring over the death of Princess Diana.

“It’s a reflex,” said one royal insider. “The King and Queen worry that if stories about phone calls and private conversations make it into the public domain they will be accused of leaking to the press, even if it’s obvious it didn’t come from them.

“They just think ‘it’s in the public domain, and public domain equals bad’.”

The King’s reaction is understandable given that Harry has repeatedly accused his father and other members of the Royal family of leaking stories about him to the press – something the Palace denies. 

“Even if this had been the most positive story in the world from the King’s point of view, it would still have generated anxiety for him,” the insider added.

The Queen’s influence over the King can never be ignored, and she would have every right to be suspicious of Harry and Meghan’s motives after the Duke accused her of “sacrificing me on her personal PR altar” in his memoir Spare at the start of this year.

The fact that Harry’s apparent conversation with the King (however short) has also been briefed to the media takes on added significance in the light of another of the moving parts: Meghan’s attempt to launch a lifestyle and wellness brand.

Planned as a rival to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop empire, the launch had been heavily trailed for this autumn, but has now been put back to the other side of Christmas, at the earliest. The reason for the delay is unclear, but she has been given a rough ride by the US media of late (not least through a withering portrayal in the hit cartoon series Family Guy last month) and may want to wait until her approval ratings recover – something that a healed relationship with the Royal family would surely help.

A previous commercial venture came to an end in the summer when the audio streaming giant Spotify parted ways with the couple amid reports of disappointing audiences.

Tellingly, the latest Sussex-leaning book by royal author Omid Scobie – whose bestseller Finding Freedom told the story of Megxit with substantial input from the Duke and Duchess – is out this month, and focuses on the rift between Harry and his brother the Prince of Wales, rather than the King and Queen.

The first extract of the book, published by People magazine on Wednesday, gives a Harry-centric account of the Duke’s unsuccessful dash to get to Queen Elizabeth II in Balmoral before she died, the blame for which is layed squarely on Prince William, who “ignored him” rather than inviting him aboard his own chartered jet.

Toning down criticism of the King and Queen in any briefings the Sussex camp have given to Scobie is in itself a kind of olive branch quite separate from birthday calls and videos.

We are told that the Duke’s phone call to his father went so well that the two have agreed to speak again next week, something that the Palace also refuses to confirm, saying any such call would be a “private” matter.

Sources have indicated to the Telegraph that the phone call went better than the Duke had dared to expect. He is an emotional creature and he will undoubtedly be elated at the thought of a reconciliation with his “Pa”.

For his part, the King is said to have been thrilled that Harry flew to London for his Coronation in May, though there remain significant barriers to a full restoration of family relations.

Harry’s hopes of an apology from his family for the way he and his wife have been treated looks as forlorn as ever. The Prince of Wales, whose relationship with his brother is over, according to Scobie, will no doubt caution the King against the dangers of being used by the Sussexes, and the Princess of Wales and the Queen have every right to say they are the ones who are owed an apology after their mauling in Harry’s memoir.

When Harry was in the UK in September, his father was too busy to see him. As recently as this week the Duke’s office was having to correct reports that he had been invited to the King’s birthday dinner at Clarence House. No such invitation had been issued.

Finally, there is the issue of the multiple privacy cases that Prince Harry is pursuing against the UK media. The King believes it is unwise of his son to air his grievances in court during a series of hearings that are expected to last until at least 2025. Doing so will only reopen old wounds and drag up stories that the Royal family would rather not revisit.

The birthday phone call, then, represents progress for Prince Harry and the King in their mutual desire to repair their fractured bond, but it will take more than one cordial transatlantic conversation to wipe away years of betrayal and distrust.

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