Living 5,000 miles away from your family can’t be easy as Prince Harry knows only too well. When news broke on Thursday evening that the King was in hospital suffering side effects from cancer treatment, it was the first his youngest son knew about it.
And it’s not the only time his relationship with his father – and other members of the royal family – has been affected by him moving overseas. Harry was only granted half an hour of his dad’s time after jetting back to the UK to see him when his cancer was first announced a year ago.
And according to reports he has barely spoken to his family in years. “First he was a spare to William, now he’s increasingly looking like a spare to Meghan – and it’s not a great look,” a source told The Sun.
The prince has become increasingly isolated since he left Britain nearly five years ago and doesn’t even speak to his cousin Princess Eugenie, who he was once really close to.
Insiders say Harry, 40, rarely leaves the couple’s mansion in Montecito, California. But he wasn’t told about his father’s hospital admission because the Palace did not want to cause unnecessary alarm by contacting Harry 5,000 miles away.
A source close to the prince said he misses his family but ‘no one is speaking to him any more’. “He just wants to go for a beer with the guys, but his only friends are just Meghan’s friends’ husbands.”
But despite missing his friends and family, Harry says he won’t return to the UK with Meghan and their two young children unless he wins his High Court battle for 24-hour armed security. This was removed when he officially stopped working as a royal.
His previously close relationship with Eugenie has also faltered in recent years. Harry and Meghan had even bought an investment property in Portugal near Eugenie and her husband Jack’s, but it’s understood the friendship suffered after she was photographed last April with Piers Morgan — a strong critic of Harry and Meghan.
“A dim view was taken of this, as Piers has clashed with Meghan and Harry in the past,” a friend told The Sun. “Eugenie has been supportive of Harry and Meghan for years and was right there at the beginning of their relationship — but it has now soured.”
Last February, after jetting back to see his father days after his cancer diagnosis, Harry said: “I love my family. The fact I could jump on a plane and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that.
“Any illness, any sickness brings families together. I’ll stop in and see my family as much as I can.”
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Meanwhile, Harry’s relationship with his brother has been strained for years. At the funeral service for Lord Robert Fellowes in August last year guests reported there was tension in the room as brothers Prince William and Harry mingled with mourners but left without speaking ‘a word’ to one another.
Lord Fellowes had been the brother’s uncle by marriage, with his wife Cynthia the older sister of the late-Princess Diana. He was also Private Secretary to the late-Queen during the 1990s and was 82 when he passed away last month.
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