Prince Harry’s latest move shows his rift with the Royal Family has reached a ‘point of no return’ says King Charles’s former butler,

Prince Harry’s rift with the Royal Family has reached the “point of no return” after he failed to meet with his father, King Charles, during his recent trip back home, the monarch’s former butler has claimed.

The Duke of Sussex was in the UK last week to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, giving a speech at a special service in St Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday.

But he did not meet with Charles, who attended a Buckingham Palace garden party and held his weekly audience with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the same day, while he also carried out another engagement in Wiltshire on Thursday.

Now Grant Harrold, who worked for the monarch between 2004-2011, described the latest move as “odd” and claimed it showed the relationship between father and son is “so badly damaged”.

Speaking on behalf of Slingo, the former royal butler said: “I don’t know why they didn’t meet. To me, it seemed odd because obviously, you would have thought that when a family member is in a country, you would make sure you’ve made a point of going to make appointments with them.

Prince Harry did not meet with King Charles during his recent trip back to the UK (Image: Getty)

“The fact the King said he was extremely busy and yes, he was, he had a garden party in the afternoon, and it’s possible that maybe his calendar was very full.

“Sadly, I think it’s a sign of how much things have deteriorated and shows you the relationship between them has obviously decreased further, and again, the same with Prince William.”

Mr Grant stated the current turn of events suggests that it “isn’t an option at the moment” for the royal rift to be repaired and raised concerns of the overall rift being “beyond the point of no return”.

He said: “Even now I’m beginning to think maybe there will not be a return point from this because the relationship has been so badly damaged.

Prince Harry gave a speech at a special service in St Paul’s Cathedral last week (Image: Getty)
 

“As with all things, time can heal. It’s possible one day the relationship – in some shape or form – could be back on the cards but right now I don’t think that’s an option.”

Shortly after his visit to the UK, Prince Harry joined his wife Meghan Markle for a three-day trip to Nigeria.

The pair were invited on the non-official tour by the country’s Department of Defence.