Royals
King Charles’ Biggest ‘Regret’ About Raising Prince Harry Is Revealed Amid Cancer Battle
Raising kids in the royal spotlight was no cakewalk for King Charles III. The monarch has one big regret about raising sons Prince Harry and Prince Wiliam, royal expert Ingrid Seward claims.
“Prince Harry and King Charles were very, very close,” she told Fox News Digital in an article published on Monday, April 1. “They got on incredibly well. I think Charles probably regrets that he wasn’t strict with Harry and William.”
After late ex-wife Princess Diana’s death at 36 in 1997, Charles, 75, “went on with Diana’s freestyle of bringing up children.”
“Diana allowed them to do, more or less, what they wanted, which was very fashionable in those days,” Seward said. “You let children just get on with things. I think Charles probably regrets that he wasn’t a bit stricter, because it might’ve given both boys a few more boundaries.”
Seward, who wrote the 2023 book My Mother and I, detailed Charles’ reaction to Diana’s passing after the princess suffered injuries in a Paris car accident.
“I think Charles was in shock, in enormous shock, and was probably … trembling himself,” she noted. “So, what he did was just sort of patted Harry on the shoulder, which is what you might do when you are in shock. It’s quite hard to suddenly let emotions go and hug someone. … You are quite mechanical. So I completely understood why Charles was like that, but obviously Harry held it against him.”
Harry, 39, opened up about his relationship with his father in his 2023 memoir, Spare. He recalled the moment Charles told him about Diana’s accident.
“[Charles] sat down on the edge of the bed,” Harry wrote in the book. “He put a hand on my knee. ‘Darling boy, Mummy’s been in a car crash.'”
“‘I’m afraid she didn’t make it,'” Harry remembered his dad telling him at the time. “These phrases remain in my mind like darts in a board. He did say it that way, I know that much for sure. She didn’t make it. And then everything seemed to come to a stop.”
Harry was 12 years old at the time of Diana’s death, and William was 15.
“Pa didn’t hug me. He wasn’t great at showing emotions under normal circumstances, how could he be expected to show them in such a crisis?” Harry continued. “But his hand did fall once more on my knee and he said: ‘It’s going to be OK.’ That was quite a lot for him. Fatherly, hopeful, kind. And so very untrue.”
Harry has had quite a strained relationship with Charles and William, 41, in the years following his wedding to Meghan Markle. He was photographed visiting his father in the U.K. in February after Charles was diagnosed with cancer.
