LONDON — The royals are in turmoil again.
It had all been going so well, with the pomp of President Donald Trump’s state visit and Prince Harry’s tea with King Charles III building a sense of a family steadied after a litany of crises. Then came the fallout.
Harry has accused unnamed palace figures of “sabotage” and of planting false accounts of his meeting with his father. Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson face renewed scrutiny over ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, Prince William opened up about what he called “the hardest year” of his life.
Together, the stories have jolted the palace narrative from triumph to turbulence — with Harry’s latest clash with the British media at the center of the storm.
Britain’s The Sun newspaper claimed last week that Harry’s first meeting with the king in two years was “distinctly formal,” claiming the prince had expressed feeling more like an “official visitor” than a son.
Harry’s camp rejected that outright.
“Recent reporting of The Duke’s view of the tone of the meeting, is categorically false,” a spokesperson told NBC News, referring to Harry’s title, Duke of Sussex. “The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.”
The public feud over the meeting has only deepened tensions at a moment when the family is seeking to project unity, and it could set back attempts to mend the relationship, according to NBC News royal commentator Daisy McAndrew.
“I think the king will be really disappointed,” she said.
Harry had earlier sounded eager to build on the brief tea, emphasizing his desire to spend more time with his father while defending his tell-all memoir in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper following that trip to the U.K.
The accusations from Harry’s camp came just a week after the family showcased its finest pomp and pageantry during Trump’s state visit — a triumph quickly overshadowed by a return to all-too-familiar controversy.
While Trump’s trip was only briefly marred by the Epstein scandal, the subject was soon back on newspaper front pages with new royal revelations.
The king has instructed Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the Duke and Duchess of York, that they will not be welcome at the royal Christmas, according to weekend reports in Britain’s Telegraph and Sunday Times newspapers that cited multiple sources.
Buckingham Palace did not respond to requests for comment on the report and on the statement from Harry’s spokesperson.
That comes after Ferguson was dropped as a patron by a number of charities following a newly surfaced email that revealed she had referred to Epstein as a “supreme friend,” despite the disgraced financier’s conviction on sex offenses. A spokesperson for the duchess said the email was sent to counter a threat Epstein had made to sue her and accuse her of defamation.
The disclosure reignited scrutiny of royal ties to Epstein, long centered on Andrew.
The palace will hope, McAndrew said, that something else will “come along to take the attention away.”
“The problem with Andrew is he’s always grabbing the attention back,” she said.
While at odds with itself in recent years, the royal family has also been buffeted by external crises.
William described 2024 as the most challenging year of his life in comments that aired Sunday — a period that saw both his wife, Kate, the Princess of Wales, and his father undergo cancer treatment.
“I’d say 2024 was the hardest year I’ve ever had,” he said, speaking to “Schitt’s Creek” star Eugene Levy on his show “The Reluctant Traveler.”
William, the heir to the throne, added: “Life is said to test us as well, and being able to overcome that is what makes us who we are.”
