Daily Mail columnist Richard Eden wrote that King Charles could be making a mistake by meeting Prince Harry during the Duke of Sussex’s visit to London, saying palace insiders are concerned that the prince’s public statements and media activity could derail a family reunion.
Eden, in a column published on Thursday, quoted unnamed royal sources who said Harry must “learn to keep quiet” if he hopes to repair relations with his family. The columnist said the sources compared the duke’s approach to publicity with past incidents, including the contents of his memoir Spare and media briefings around previous contacts with the royal household.
Eden wrote that courtiers view Harry’s readiness to speak to broadcasters and to publicise personal contacts as a barrier to renewed private conversations. He cited examples in which briefings ahead of King Charles’s 75th birthday and other events produced detailed accounts of private calls and meetings, and he noted the appearance of personal material from family conversations in Spare.
The columnist also highlighted publicity surrounding a reported personal donation of £1.1 million from Harry to BBC Children in Need, writing that the decision to make the amount public on the same day Prince William visited a youth charity had been called “crass” by a royal source. Eden quoted the BBC’s description of the donation and said palace aides were alarmed by what they regarded as an aggressive public relations push by the Sussexes.
Eden said Harry’s newly appointed communications aide, Meredith Maines, had travelled from Los Angeles to meet Tobyn Andreae, the communications secretary to the King and Queen, in the period leading up to the visit. He reported that those briefings were intended to set the groundwork for a face-to-face meeting at Clarence House.
The column framed the concern around two themes: the Windsor family’s desire for discretion and their mistrust that private conversations will not remain private. “Harry needs to prove that he can be trusted to keep private conversations private,” Eden quoted a royal source as saying. The piece added that the return of family trust might also require a public and private apology to other senior royals if fences are to be mended.
Eden invoked the late Queen Elizabeth II’s oft-cited maxim, “Never complain, never explain,” to contrast it with what he described as Harry’s propensity to air grievances publicly. He wrote that Prince William and the Princess of Wales — who he described as likely to understand Charles’s wish to see his son — would be hurt if details of the meeting were used for publicity in the days after any reunion.
The column is an opinion piece reflecting the views of Eden and the unnamed palace sources he cites. It references public reporting by the BBC about the donation and the publication of Spare, which included accounts of conversations involving other members of the royal family. Eden did not cite on-the-record responses from Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, or representatives for the Duke of Sussex in his column.