King Charles ‘tried to break down barriers’ with his family amid feuds
King Charles has strained ties with his younger son, Prince Harry, who laid bare their relationship in his memoir
May 13, 2023
Russell Myers, royal editor at Lorraine, discussed King Charles’ ties with his family, particularly his children and grandchildren, on the latest episode of the Pod Save The King podcast.
“Charles, growing up in the post-war era of Britain, was in a completely different situation to his children and his grandchildren because Britain was obviously coming out of a very dark period of war,” Myers explained.
“And certainly, his relationships with his family were very, very different to the relationships that he has with his own children and grandchildren. We talk about a British stiff upper lip and that certainly was archetypal of the war era,” Myer continued.
“Charles has really tried to break down the barriers of that with his family and to create a different feeling, certainly with the younger members.”
Currently, the monarch has strained ties with his younger son, Prince Harry, who laid bare their relationship in his explosive memoir, Spare. Harry shared that Charles did not have any emotional bonding with his sons.
However, the monarch himself had a “complicated” relationship with his father, Prince Philip.
Moreover, according to Kitty Kelley’s The Royals, when Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne at an early age, “any idea of a family in the normal sense was knocked on the head.”
She mentioned the Queen and Philip returning from their 1953 Commonwealth tour, “[Charles] had not seen her for six months, so he raced on board the Britannia to welcome her home. He ran up to join the group of dignitaries waiting to shake her hand.
“When the Queen saw her young son squirming in line, she said: ‘No, not you, dear.’ She did not hug him or kiss him; she simply patted his shoulder and passed along to the next person.”
However, his relationships with his mother and father bettered over the years.
Contradictory to Myers’ opinion, Prince Harry has claimed his father followed in the footsteps of his own parents, treating him and William “the way that he was treated.”
